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Statistics of Multiple Stars: Some Clues to Formation Mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Andrei Tokovinin
Andrei Tokovinin*
Affiliation:
Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Universitetsky prosp. 13, 119899 Moscow, Russia, and European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild Str. 2, Garching bei München, D-85748 Germany

Abstract

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The available information on the statistics of high multiplicity (3–6 components) systems is reviewed. The ratio of triple to binary systems is f3 ≍ 0.11, while fn ≍ 0.25 for higher n. Despite selection effects in the multiple star catalogue, the signatures of formation mechanisms are found in the distributions of period ratios and mass ratios. For example, the frequent occurrence of close sub-systems with periods less than 6 days can be explained by tidal dissipation in a 3-body system. In triple stars the angular momentum vectors of inner orbits are inclined to those of outer orbits by an average angle of 50°, hence the orbital spins are neither co-aligned nor completely random. Close binaries have a tendency to be found in higher-multiplicity systems, showing that close and wide binarity is statistically related. Future theoretical and observational studies are outlined.

Type
III. Main Sequence Binary Statistics
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 200: The Formation of Binary Stars , 2001 , pp. 84 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001 

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