scholarly journals The Mass Distribution of Secondaries to Solar-Type Stars

2004 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 37-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut A. Abt ◽  
Daryl W. Willmarth

AbstractTwo previous studies of the secondary mass function in spectroscopic binaries by Abt & Levy (1976) and by Duquennoy & Mayor (1991) are shown to be in good agreement if they are both plotted with the same abscissa scale. A new study of 271 main-sequence stars later than F6 V made with a radial-velocity accuracy of ±0.10 km s-1 yielded 10 new sets of orbital elements in addition to the 59 published ones. The resulting secondary mass function is nearly flat and shows that 2.2±1.5% of the primaries have low-mass (0.01–0.10 M⊙) companions. In contrast, the secondary mass function for visual binaries with separations >500 AU fits a van Rhijn function, as was shown previously by Abt and Levy.

1999 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 121-130
Author(s):  
G. W. Marcy ◽  
R. Paul Butler ◽  
D. A. Fischer

AbstractWe have measured the radial velocities of 540 G and K main sequence stars with a precision of 3−10 ms−1 using the Lick and Keck échelle spectrometers. We had detected 6 companions that have m sin i < 7 MJup. We announce here the discovery of a new planet around Gliese 876, found in our Doppler measurements from both Lick and Keck. This is the first planet found around an M dwarf, which indicates that planets occur around low-mass stars, in addition to solar-type stars. We combine our entire stellar sample with that of Mayor et al. to derive general properties of giant planets within a few AU of these stars. Less than 1% of G and K main sequence stars harbor brown dwarf companions with masses between 5 and 70 MJup. Including Gliese 876b, 8 companions exhibit m sin i < 5 MJup which constitute the best planet candidates to date. Apparently, 4% of stars have planetary companions within the range m sin i = 0.5 to 5 MJup. Planets are distinguished from brown dwarfs by the discontinuous jump in the mass function at 5 MJup. About 2/3 of the planets orbit within just 0.3 AU due in part to their favorable detectability, but also possibly due to a real “pile up” of planets near the star. Inward orbital migration after formation may explain this, but the mechanism to stop the migration remains unclear. Five of eight planets have orbital eccentricities greater than that of our Jupiter, eJup = 0.048, and tidal circularization may explain most of the circular orbits. Thus, eccentric orbits are common and may arise from gravitational interactions with other planets, stars, or the protoplanetary disk. The planet-bearing stars are systematically metal-rich, as is the Sun, compared to the solar neighborhood.


2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (2) ◽  
pp. 1355-1368
Author(s):  
J-L Halbwachs ◽  
F Kiefer ◽  
Y Lebreton ◽  
H M J Boffin ◽  
F Arenou ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s) are one of the main sources of stellar masses, as additional observations are only needed to give the inclinations of the orbital planes in order to obtain the individual masses of the components. For this reason, we are observing a selection of SB2s using the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Haute-Provence observatory in order to precisely determine their orbital elements. Our objective is to finally obtain masses with an accuracy of the order of one per cent by combining our radial velocity (RV) measurements and the astrometric measurements that will come from the Gaia satellite. We present here the RVs and the re-determined orbits of 10 SB2s. In order to verify the masses, we will derive from Gaia, we obtained interferometric measurements of the ESO VLTI for one of these SB2s. Adding the interferometric or speckle measurements already published by us or by others for four other stars, we finally obtain the masses of the components of five binary stars, with masses ranging from 0.51 to 2.2 solar masses, including main-sequence dwarfs and some more evolved stars whose location in the HR diagram has been estimated.


2001 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 165-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike W. Guenther ◽  
Viki Joergens ◽  
Ralph Neuhäuser ◽  
Guillermo Torres ◽  
Natalie Stout Batalha ◽  
...  

We give here an overview of the current state of our survey for pre-main sequence spectroscopic binaries. Up to now we have taken 739 spectra of 250 pre-main sequence stars. We find that 8% of the stars show significant radial velocity variations, and are thus most likely spectroscopic binaries. In addition to the targets showing radial velocity variations, 6% of the targets are double-lined spectroscopic binaries i.e., the total fraction of spectroscopic binaries is expected to be about 14%. All short-period SB2s are monitored photometrically in order to search for eclipses. An eclipsing SB2 would allow the direct measurement of the masses of both stellar components. Measurements of the stellar masses together with determinations of the stellar radii are a crucial test of evolutionary tracks of pre-main sequence stars.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S239) ◽  
pp. 446-448
Author(s):  
L. T. S. Mendes ◽  
N. R. Landin ◽  
L. P. R. Vaz

AbstractThe Rossby number Ro is an important quantity related to the well-known magnetic activity-rotation correlation for main sequence, solar-type stars. For such stars, Ro can be obtained by a semi-empirical relationship between the convective turnover time τc and the B-V colour index, but an equivalent activity-rotation correlation seems not to exist for pre-main sequence stars. In this work we report theoretical estimates of τc for low-mass, rotating pre-main sequence stars under either the Full Spectrum of Turbulence (FST) or the classical Mixing Length Theory (MLT) convection models. The results for the MLT models show that the lower the convection efficiency the higher τc, while the FST models give τc lower than those for the MLT. The presence of a parametric magnetic field lowers the convection efficiency, resulting in smaller τc values.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S276) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Geoffrey W. Marcy ◽  
Andrew W. Howard ◽  

AbstractWe analyze the statistics of Doppler-detected planets and Keplere-detected planet candidates of high integrity. We determine the number of planets per star as a function of planet mass, radius, and orbital period, and the occurrence of planets as a function of stellar mass. We consider only orbital periods less than 50 days around Solar-type (GK) stars, for which both Doppler and Kepler offer good completeness. We account for observational detection effects to determine the actual number of planets per star. From Doppler-detected planets discovered in a survey of 166 nearby G and K main sequence stars we find a planet occurrence of 15+5−4% for planets with M sin i = 3–30 ME and P < 50 d, as described in Howard et al. (2010). From Keplere, the planet occurrence is 0.130 ± 0.008, 0.023 ± 0.003, and 0.013 ± 0.002 planets per star for planets with radii 2–4, 4–8, and 8–32 RE, consistent with Doppler-detected planets. From Keplere, the number of planets per star as a function of planet radius is given by a power law, df/dlog R = kRRα with kR = 2.9+0.5−0.4, α = −1.92 ± 0.11, and R = RP/RE. Neither the Doppler-detected planets nor the Keplere-detected planets exhibit a “desert” at super-Earth and Neptune sizes for close-in orbits, as suggested by some planet population synthesis models. The distribution of planets with orbital period, P, shows a gentle increase in occurrence with orbital period in the range 2–50 d. The occurrence of small, 2–4 RE planets increases with decreasing stellar mass, with seven times more planets around low mass dwarfs (3600–4100 K) than around massive stars (6600–7100 K).


2006 ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Ninkovic ◽  
V. Trajkovska

The present authors analyze samples consisting of Hipparcos stars. Based on the corresponding HR diagrams they estimate masses of Main-Sequence stars from their visual magnitudes. They find that already beyond the heliocentric radius of 10 pc the effects of observational selection against K and M dwarfs become rather strong. For this reason the authors are inclined to think that the results concerning this heliocentric sphere appear as realistic, i. e. the fraction of low-mass stars (under half solar mass) is about 50% and, as a consequence, the mean star mass should be about 0.6 solar masses and Agekyan's factor about 1.2. That stars with masses higher than 5 M? are very rare is confirmed also from the data concerning more remote stars. It seems that white dwarfs near the Sun are not too frequent so that their presence cannot affect the main results of the present work significantly.


1989 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 111-115
Author(s):  
Robert D. Mathieu

Although the unusual nature of T Tau was noted over four decades ago, the first orbit for a low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) spectroscopic binary was not determined until Mundt et al. (1983) serendipitously discovered the double-lined nature of V826 Tau. To some degree the paucity of spectroscopic binary detections may be attributed to the faintness of such stars and the consequent difficulty in obtaining high resolution spectra; the first high-precision radial-velocity survey was that of Herbig (1977). Advances in radial-velocity measurement technology now permit relatively easy velocity measurements of PMS stars. However, V826 Tau was also one of the first discovered members of the naked T Tauri (NTTS) class of PMS stars (Walter 1987) and its discovery as a spectroscopic binary foreshadowed a prevalence for binary detection among this population. In this short paper we review the present observational status of PMS spectroscopic binaries and present several initial results and thoughts for consideration.


2001 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Mayor ◽  
S. Udry ◽  
J.-L. Halbwachs ◽  
F. Arenou

Long-term radial-velocity surveys of G, K and M dwarfs of the solar neighbourhood are presented. The inferred orbital elements are discussed, focusing on the (e, log P) diagram, the mass-ratio and secondary mass distributions, and on the binary frequency of the studied samples. The proportion of companions to M dwarfs is found to be not significantly different from the binary frequency among G- and K-dwarf primaries. The mass function of stellar and planetary companions to solar-type stars strongly suggests different formation and evolution mechanisms for the two populations. Finally, beautiful mass-luminosity relations are obtained from low-mass binaries with high-precision radial-velocity measurements and adaptive optics visual data.


2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A81 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-L. Halbwachs ◽  
M. Mayor ◽  
S. Udry

Context. The statistical properties of binary stars are clues for understanding their formation process. A radial velocity survey was carried on amongst nearby G-type stars and the results were published in 1991. Aims. The survey of radial velocity measurements was extended towards K-type stars. Methods. A sample of 261 K-type stars was observed with the spectrovelocimeter CORAVEL (COrrelation RAdial VELocities). Those stars with a variable radial velocity were detected on the basis of the P(Χ2) test. The orbital elements of the spectroscopic binaries were then derived. Results. The statistical properties of binary stars were derived from these observations and published in 2003. We present the catalogue of the radial velocity measurements obtained with CORAVEL for all the K stars of the survey and the orbital elements derived for 34 spectroscopic systems. In addition, the catalogue contains eight G-type spectroscopic binaries that have received additional measurements since 1991 and for which the orbital elements are revised or derived for the first time.


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