scholarly journals Statistical Properties of Solar-Type Close Binaries

2004 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
J.-L. Halbwachs ◽  
M. Mayor ◽  
S. Udry ◽  
F. Arenou

AbstractTwo Coravel radial velocity surveys dedicated to F7-K field dwarfs and to open clusters are merged in order to investigate the statistical properties of binaries with periods up to 10 years. Thanks to the accurate trigonometric parallaxes provided by Hipparcos, an unbiased sample of spectroscopic binaries (SB) is selected. After correction for the uncertainties of the measurements, the following results are obtained: 1. The distribution of mass ratios exhibits a peak for equal-mass binaries (twins), which is higher for short-period binaries than for long-period binaries. 2. Apart from the twins, the distribution of mass ratios exhibits a broad peak from 0.2 to 0.6. 3. The orbital eccentricities of twins are slightly smaller than those of other binaries. 4. An excess of SB is observed with periods shorter than about 50 days in comparison with the Duquennoy and Mayor log-normal distribution of periods. These features suggest that close binary stars are generated by two different processes. A possible difference could come from the accretion onto the binary, for instance from a common envelope or from a circumbinary disk. Alternatively, twins could come from dynamic evolution of multiple systems. It is not clear whether the formation models are already sufficiently elaborated to reproduce our statistics.

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 569-594
Author(s):  
J. Smak ◽  
R.H. Koch ◽  
K.D. Abhyankar ◽  
J. Andersen ◽  
A.H. Batten ◽  
...  

During the XlXth General Assembly of the IAU in Delhi the number of members of Cotrmission 42 increased to 260. This simply reflects the growing interest and importance of our field. Growing is not only the number of astronomers involved in research on CBS but also the number of papers resulting from that activity. As an example one can quote the numbers of papers listed during the last few years in Sections 117 (Close Binaries), 119 (Eelipsing Binaries), and 120 (Spectroscopic Binaries) of theAstronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts:705(1982), 775(1983), 836(1984), 1080(1985), and 911(1986); note that many additional references could be added to these numbers from other sections. Naturally, such numbers alone do not reflect the quality and even less so the position and significance of the CBS field. Here one could perhaps mention an impressive record of successful research proposals involving requests for the observing time on large, ground based telescopes and on space instruments. Indeed, in spite of a very strong competition from other fields, programs involving CBS are usually placed very high on the priority lists (cf. Sections 2D and 2E). Obviously, the close binary systems, their evolution, and the physical processes which occur in them (accretion, stellar winds, nuclear burning, etc) appear interesting and important not only to those who are involved in their studies but also to astronomers from other fields.


1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 479-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Koch

By the end of the XXth General Assembly in Baltimore, the number of Commission 42 members had increased to 305. Subsequently, D. Ya. Martynov has died and 11 new members have been added.The last Draft Report showed a healthy rate of growth in citations of Sections 117 (Close Binaries), 119 (Eclipsing Binaries), and 120 (Spectroscopic Binaries) of Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts from 1982 through 1986. The number of these citations has continued the mean trend with 976 and 1015 references for 1987 and 1988, respectively. As the Past-President remarked, these counts are considerable underestimates of the total literature concerning close binaries (hereafter, CB’s). A personal appreciation of the total corpus of work is that quality remains very high and content has become much richer as more and more associations have been made with generalized stellar studies. In part, this may be traced to the everincreasing awareness by the general community of the experiments in stellar evolution which Nature runs in CB’s.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (T27A) ◽  
pp. 260-266
Author(s):  
Slavek M. Rucinski ◽  
Ignasi Ribas ◽  
Alvaro Giménez ◽  
Petr Harmanec ◽  
Ronald W. Hilditch ◽  
...  

Two meetings of interest to close binaries took place during the reporting period: A full day session on short-period binary stars – mostly CV's – (Milone et al. 2008) during the 2006 AAS Spring meeting in Calgary and the very broadly designed IAU Symposium No. 240 on Binary Stars as Critical Tools and Tests in Contemporary Astrophysics in Prague, 2006, with many papers on close binaries [Hartkopf et al. 2007]. In addition, the book by Eggleton (2006), which is a comprehensive summary of evolutionary processes in binary and multiple stars, was published.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S272) ◽  
pp. 474-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugues Sana ◽  
Christopher J. Evans

AbstractBinaries are excellent astrophysical laboratories that provide us with direct measurements of fundamental stellar parameters. Compared to single isolated stars, multiplicity induces new processes, offering the opportunity to confront our understanding of a broad range of physics under the extreme conditions found in, and close to, astrophysical objects.In this contribution, we will discuss the parameter space occupied by massive binaries, and the observational means to investigate it. We will review the multiplicity fraction of OB stars within each regime, and in different astrophysical environments. In particular we will compare the O star spectroscopic binary fraction in nearby open clusters and we will show that the current data are adequately described by an homogeneous fraction of f ≈ 0.44.We will also summarize our current understanding of the observed parameter distributions of O + OB spectroscopic binaries. We will show that the period distribution is overabundant in short period binaries and that it can be described by a bi-modal Öpik law with a break point around P ≈ 10 d. The distribution of the mass-ratios shows no indication for a twin population of equal mass binaries and seems rather uniform in the range 0.2 ≤ q = M2/M1 ≤ 1.0.


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (1) ◽  
pp. 483-490
Author(s):  
Jim Fuller

ABSTRACT In close binary stars, the tidal excitation of pulsations typically dissipates energy, causing the system to evolve towards a circular orbit with aligned and synchronized stellar spins. However, for stars with self-excited pulsations, we demonstrate that tidal interaction with unstable pulsation modes can transfer energy in the opposite direction, forcing the spins of the stars away from synchronicity, and potentially pumping the eccentricity and spin–orbit misalignment angle. This ‘inverse’ tidal process only occurs when the tidally forced mode amplitude is comparable to the mode’s saturation amplitude, and it is thus most likely to occur in main-sequence gravity mode pulsators with orbital periods of a few days. We examine the long-term evolution of inverse tidal action, finding the stellar rotation rate can potentially be driven to a very large or very small value, while maintaining a large spin–orbit misalignment angle. Several recent asteroseismic analyses of pulsating stars in close binaries have revealed extremely slow core rotation periods, which we attribute to the action of inverse tides.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Y. Zhu ◽  
S. B. Qian ◽  
E.-G. Zhao ◽  
E. Fernández Lajús ◽  
Z.-T. Han

The sdB-type close binaries are believed to have experienced a common-envelope phase and may evolve into cataclysmic binaries (CVs). About 10% of all known sdB binaries are eclipsing binaries consisting of very hot subdwarf primaries and low-mass companions with short orbital periods. The eclipse profiles of these systems are very narrow and deep, which benefits the determination of high precise eclipsing times and makes the detection of small and close-in tertiary bodies possible. Since 2006 we have monitored some sdB-type eclipsing binaries to search for the close-in substellar companions by analyzing the light travel time effect. Here some progresses of the program are reviewed and the formation of sdB-type binary is discussed.


1982 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 129-131
Author(s):  
E.I. Popova ◽  
A.V. Tutukov ◽  
B.M. Shustov ◽  
L.R. Yungelson

About 60% of stars of the disc population in our Galaxy are close binary systems (CBS). Half of the known CBS are spectroscopic binary stars (Kraitcheva et al., 1978).To know the distribution of a correlation between the masses of CBS components and semiaxes of their orbits is necessary for the investigation of the origin and evolution of CBS. For such statistical investigations, a catalogue of CBS was compiled at the Astronomical Council. The catalogue is based on the 6th Batten catalogue (Batten, 1967), its extensions (Pedoussant and Ginestet, 1971; Pedoussant and Carquillat, 1973) and data published up to the end of 1980 (Popova et al., 1981). Now it is recorded on magnetic tape and contains data on 1041 spectroscopic binaries; 333 of them are stars with two visible spectra. The latter are mostly systems prior to mass exchange and the distribution of physical parameters in these systems reflects the distribution and presumably conditions at the time of formation. Using some assumptions, we can obtain for spectroscopic binaries masses of the components M1 and M2 (or the ratio q = M1/M2) and semiaxes of their orbits. Masses of components with the known sin i were obtained by the usual technique; when sin i was not known, masses were estimated from the spectra. We shall discuss here the distribution of CBS in the M-a plane.


1976 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 331-331
Author(s):  
Brian P. Flannery

Contact binary stars coupled by a common convective envelope in which the entropy is constant, the Lucy model, are unstable against mass exchange: if either component begins to transfer mass, it will continue to do so. A detailed sequence of models is calculated which follows the thermal evolution of a 2M⊙ contact binary of normal Population I abundances (X=0.70, Z = 0.02), starting at nearly equal mass. The initial instability develops into a cyclic mass-exchange with the mass fraction oscillating between 0.56≤m2/(m1 + m2)≤0.62 with a period of ~107yr. Throughout the cycle the component stars are not in thermal equilibrium. The instability is of a general nature, and such oscillating systems can satisfactorily populate the short period, red region of the period color relation for WUMa stars.


2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-232
Author(s):  
Sabit P. Ilyasov

Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute (UBAI) of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences is one of the oldest scientific institutions not only in Uzbekistan, but in the whole of Central Asia as well. There are five departments in the institute. The main directions of research are solar physics, young non-stationary and close binary stars in star formation regions, satellite geodynamics, non-linear and non-stationary evolution of galaxies. Helioseismology studies carried out in the frame of the IRIS (International Research on the Interior of the Sun) and TON (Taiwan Oscillation Network) projects. Astrophysical programmes such as a search for periodicity in star-formation regions, study of close binary stars in the same regions, as well as in open clusters, CCD photometry of extra-galactic objects as gravitation lenses have been made at the Maidanak Observatory, which is located in the south-east of Uzbekistan. Monitoring of the seeing at Mt. Maidanak from 1996 to 1999, using ESO Differential Image Motion Monitor, showed that its atmospheric conditions are comparable with the best international observatories. The present status of the main fields of research and prospects are discussed. (Co-author is Shurat A. Ehgamberdiev, Uzbekistan.)


2004 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 28-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Eggenberger ◽  
J.-L. Halbwachs ◽  
S. Udry ◽  
M. Mayor

AbstractWe have undertaken a new investigation of the statistical properties of main-sequence binaries, which is a revision and extension of the Duquennoy & Mayor survey of solar-type stars. The analysis has been divided into two parts: the spectroscopic binaries with periods shorter than 10 years, and the long-period systems including visual binaries and common proper motion pairs. In this contribution we present preliminary results regarding the intrinsic mass ratio and period distributions of visual binaries. Our results are strongly limited by small-number statistics, but when combined with the ones found for the spectroscopic binaries, the following results are obtained: (i) the excess of equal-mass binaries, if still present, is less important for long-period systems than for the binaries with P < 50 days; (ii) the period distribution is inconsistent with a flat distribution.


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