Binaries in the field: fossils of the star formation process?

Abstract

Recent observations of binary stars in the Galactic field show that the binary fraction and the mean orbital separation both decrease as a function of decreasing primary mass. We present $N$-body simulations of the effects of dynamical evolution in star-forming regions on primordial binary stars to determine whether these observed trends can be explained by the dynamical processing of a common binary population. We find that dynamical processing of a binary population with an initial binary fraction of unity and an initial excess of intermediate/wide separation (100 - 10${}^4$ au) binaries does not reproduce the observed properties in the field, even in initially dense ($\sim 10^3$M${}_{\odot }$ pc${}^{-3}$) star-forming regions. If instead we adopt a field-like population as the initial conditions, most brown dwarf and M-dwarf binaries are dynamically hard and their overall fractions and separation distributions are unaffected by dynamical evolution. G-dwarf and A-star binaries in the field are dynamically intermediate in our simulated dense regions and dynamical processing does destroy some systems with separations $>$100 au. However, the formation of wide binaries through the dissolution of supervirial regions is a strong function of primary mass, and the wide G-dwarf and A-star binaries that are destroyed by dynamical evolution in subvirial regions are replenished by the formation of binaries in supervirial regions. We therefore suggest that the binary population in the field is $indicative$ of the primordial binary population in star-forming regions, at least for systems with primary masses in the range 0.02 - 3.0M${}_{\odot }$.

arXiv comment17 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (75)

• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• From filamentary clouds to prestellar cores to the stellar IMF: Initial highlights from the Herschel Gould Belt survey
• Stellar Multiplicity
• A Universal Stellar Initial Mass Function? A Critical Look at Variations
• Characterizing interstellar filaments with Herschel in IC5146
• Stellar, brown dwarf and multiple star properties from a radiation hydrodynamical simulation of star cluster formation
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey VIII. Multiplicity properties of the O-type star population
• Stellar, Brown Dwarf, and Multiple Star Properties from Hydrodynamical Simulations of Star Cluster Formation
• Star cluster ecology IVa: Dissection of an open star cluster---photometry
• Inverse Dynamical Population Synthesis and Star Formation
• The Luminosity and Mass Functions of Low-Mass Stars in the Galactic Disk: II. The Field
• The VAST Survey - III. The multiplicity of A-type stars within 75 pc
• From binaries to multiples II: hierarchical multiplicity of F and G dwarfs
• The statistical Analysis of Star Clusters
• The Spatial Distribution of Star Formation in the Solar Neighbourhood: Do all stars form in clusters?
• The initial mass function : from Salpeter 1955 to 2005
• Massive stars in massive clusters II: Disruption of bound clusters by photoionization
• The Dynamical Properties of Stellar Systems in the Galactic Disc
• The Formation of Low-Mass Binary Star Systems Via Turbulent Fragmentation
• The Palomar/Keck Adaptive Optics Survey of Young Solar Analogs: Evidence for a Universal Companion Mass Function
• Inverse dynamical population synthesis: Constraining the initial conditions of young stellar clusters by studying their binary populations
• The VAST Survey -- II. Orbital motion monitoring of A-type star multiples
• The AstraLux Large M-dwarf Multiplicity Survey
• Simulating star formation in molecular cloud cores I. The influence of low levels of turbulence on fragmentation and multiplicity
• The dynamical evolution of fractal star clusters: the survival of substructure
• Formation of the Widest Binaries from Dynamical Unfolding of Triple Systems
• The formation of very wide binaries during the star cluster dissolution phase
• Comparative statistics and origin of triple and quadruple stars
• The dynamical state of stellar structure in star-forming regions
• Dynamical evolution of star forming regions
• SMA Observations of Class 0 Protostars: A High-Angular Resolution Survey of Protostellar Binary Systems
• A High Angular Resolution Multiplicity Survey of the Open Clusters alpha Persei and Praesepe
• On the evolution of a star cluster and its multiple stellar systems following gas dispersal
• Ionizing feedback from massive stars in massive clusters III: Disruption of partially unbound clouds
• On the function describing the stellar initial mass function
• Visual Binaries in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• A Survey for Spectroscopic Binaries Among Very Low-Mass Stars
• On the properties of young multiple stars
• Binary stars in young clusters: models versus observations of the Trapezium Cluster
• Evolving structures of star-forming clusters
• Lucky Imaging survey for southern M dwarf binaries
• The spatial distribution of stars in open clusters
• Dense Stellar Populations: Initial Conditions
• The structures of embedded clusters in the Perseus, Serpens and Ophiuchus molecular clouds
• The Evolution of the Multiplicity of Embedded Protostars II: Binary Separation Distribution & Analysis
• Do binaries in clusters form in the same way as in the field?
• Dynamical Interactions of Planetary Systems in Dense Stellar Environments
• Importance of the Initial Conditions for Star Formation - III: Statistical Properties of Embedded Protostellar Clusters
• A discontinuity in the low-mass initial mass function
• Testing the universality of star formation - I. Multiplicity in nearby star-forming regions
• Binary Formation Mechanisms: Constraints from the Companion Mass Ratio Distribution
• Characterizing the dynamical state of star clusters from snapshots of their spatial distributions
• The Universality of the Companion Mass Ratio Distribution
• On the frequency of close binary systems among very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs
• The Complex Distribution of Recently Formed Stars. Bimodal Stellar Clustering in the Star-Forming Region NGC 346
• Dynamical population synthesis: Constructing the stellar single and binary contents of galactic field populations
• Stellar Kinematics of Young Clusters in Turbulent Hydrodynamic Simulations
• Wide binaries in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• The evolution of binary populations in cool, clumpy star clusters
• The rapid dispersal of low-mass virialised clusters
• Multiplicity of very low-mass objects in the Upper Scorpius OB association: a possible wide binary population
• Collisional formation of very massive stars in dense clusters
• On the formation of trapezium-like systems
• The Orbital Decay of Embedded Binary Stars
• Testing the universality of star formation - II. Comparing separation distributions of nearby star-forming regions and the field
• Do all stars in the solar neighbourhood form in clusters? A cautionary note on the use of the distribution of surface densities
• Multiplicity of young stars in and around R Corona Australis
• Consequences of Dynamical Disruption and Mass Segregation for the Binary Frequencies of Star Clusters
• The binary companion mass ratio distribution: an imprint of the star formation process?
• The same, but different: Stochasticity in binary destruction
• Towards the field binary population: Influence of orbital decay on close binaries
• The initial period function of late-type binary stars and its variation
• Modes of clustered star formation
• Resolved Spectroscopy of M Dwarf/L Dwarf Binaries. IV. Discovery of an M9 + L6 BInary Separated by Over 100 AU
• Reverse dynamical evolution of Eta Chamaeleontis

Cited by in corpus (35)

• Cygnus OB2 DANCe: A high precision proper motion study of the Cygnus OB2 association
• On the initial binary population for star cluster simulations
• Runaway and walkaway stars from the ONC with Gaia DR2
• The Dynamical Fate of Self-Gravitating Disc Fragments After Tidal Downsizing
• Dynamical evolution of star forming regions - II. Basic kinematics
• An HST Survey for 100-1000 AU Companions around Young Stellar Objects in the Orion Molecular Clouds: Evidence for Environmentally Dependent Multiplicity
• High Mass-ratio Binary Population in Open Clusters: Segregation of early type binaries and an increasing binary fraction with mass
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: Dynamical Analysis of the L1688 region in Ophiuchus
• Implementing Primordial Binaries in Simulations of Star Cluster Formation with a Hybrid MHD and Direct N-Body Method
• Protostellar Feedback in Turbulent Fragmentation: Consequences for Stellar Clustering and Multiplicity
• IN-SYNC VI. Identification and Radial Velocity Extraction for 100+ Double-Lined Spectroscopic Binaries in the APOGEE/IN-SYNC Fields
• The crucial role of higher-order multiplicity in wide binary formation: A case study using the $\beta$-Pictoris moving group
• Effects of the environment on the multiplicity properties of stars in the STARFORGE simulations
• The contribution of binary star formation via core-fragmentation on protostellar multiplicity
• M Dwarf Exoplanet Surface Density Distribution: A Log-Normal Fit from 0.07-400 AU
• Binary stars in Upper Scorpius
• The Orbit of the L dwarf + T dwarf Spectral Binary SDSS J080531.84+481233.0
• The Solar Neighborhood. XLVI. Revealing New M Dwarf Binaries and their Orbital Architectures
• A Search for Intermediate Separation Low Mass Binaries in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• Constraining the initial conditions of NGC 2264 using ejected stars found in Gaia DR2
• Resolved Companions of Cepheids: Testing the Candidates with X-Ray Observations
• Statistics of wide pre-main sequence binaries in the Orion OB1 association
• Long-term stability of planets in and around binary stars
• Star Cluster Formation from Turbulent Clumps. I. The Fast Formation Limit
• The long-term dynamical evolution of disc-fragmented multiple systems in the Solar Neighborhood
• M-dwarf binaries as tracers of star and brown dwarf formation
• Quantifying kinematic substructure in star-forming regions with statistical tests of spatial autocorrelation
• New binaries in the epsilon Cha association
• A possible solution to the Milky Way's binary-deficient retrograde stellar population. Evidence that $\omega$ Centauri has formed in an extreme starburst
• Do individual Spitzer young stellar object candidates enclose multiple UKIDSS sources?
• The onset of stellar multiplicity in massive star formation: A search for low-mass companions of massive young stellar objects with $L^{\prime }$-band adaptive optics imaging
• Pairing function of visual binary stars
• NGC 3105: A Young Cluster in the Outer Galaxy
• The Great Planetary Heist: Theft and capture in star-forming regions
• Drifters on the edge of town: $\lambda$ Boötis stars in clusters