Towards Multiple-Star Population Synthesis

Abstract

The multiplicities of stars, and some other properties, were collected recently by Eggleton & Tokovinin, for the set of 4559 stars with Hipparcos magnitude brighter than 6.0 (4558 excluding the Sun). In this paper I give a numerical recipe for constructing, by a Monte Carlo technique, a theoretical ensemble of multiple stars that resembles the observed sample. Only multiplicities up to 8 are allowed; the observed set contains only multiplicities up to 7. In addition, recipes are suggested for dealing with the selection effects and observational uncertainties that attend the determination of multiplicity. These recipes imply, for example, that to achieve the observed average multiplicity of 1.53, it would be necessary to suppose that the real population has an average multiplicity slightly over 2.0. This numerical model may be useful for (a) comparison with the results of star and star cluster formation theory, (b) population synthesis that does not ignore multiplicity above 2, and (c) initial conditions for dynamical cluster simulations.

References in corpus (6)

• Shrinking binary and planetary orbits by Kozai cycles with tidal friction
• Tertiary companions to close spectroscopic binaries
• A Catalog of Multiplicity among Bright Stellar Systems
• Contact Binaries with Additional Components.I. The Extant Data
• Efficiency of mass transfer in massive close binaries, Tests from double-lined eclipsing binaries in the SMC
• A Spectroscopic Orbit for Regulus

Cited by in corpus (12)

• The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite: Simulations of planet detections and astrophysical false positives
• From binaries to multiples II: hierarchical multiplicity of F and G dwarfs
• The Updated Multiple Star Catalog
• The evolution of stellar triples: The most common evolutionary pathways
• Population synthesis of triple systems in the context of mergers of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs
• Stellar triples on the edge; Comprehensive overview of the evolution of destabilised triples leading to stellar and binary exotica
• The HD 98800 quadruple pre-main sequence system. Towards full orbital characterisation using long-baseline infrared interferometry
• A Triple Star Origin For T Pyx and Other Short-Period Recurrent Novae
• Degeneracy between mass and peculiar acceleration for the double white dwarfs in the LISA band
• Stellar Triples as a Source for Ba Stars
• First detailed analysis of multiple system V2083 Cyg
• A 2+1+1 quadruple star system containing the most eccentric, low-mass, short-period, eclipsing binary known