paper

A survey of the high order multiplicity of nearby solar-type binary stars with Robo-AO

arXiv:1411.0682 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/799/1/4

Abstract

We conducted a survey of nearby binary systems composed of main sequence stars of spectral types F and G in order to improve our understanding of the hierarchical nature of multiple star systems. Using Robo-AO, the first robotic adaptive optics instrument, we collected high angular resolution images with deep and well-defined detection limits in the SDSS band. A total of 695 components belonging to 595 systems were observed. We prioritized observations of faint secondary components with separations over to quantify the still poorly constrained frequency of their sub-systems. Of the 214 secondaries observed, 39 contain such subsystems; 19 of those were discovered with Robo-AO. The selection-corrected frequency of secondary sub-systems with periods from to days is 0.120.03, the same as the frequency of such companions to the primary. Half of the secondary pairs belong to quadruple systems where the primary is also a close pair, showing that the presence of sub-systems in both components of the outer binary is correlated. The relatively large abundance of 2+2 quadruple systems is a new finding, and will require more exploration of the formation mechanism of multiple star systems. We also targeted close binaries with periods less than 100~yr, searching for their distant tertiary components, and discovered 17 certain and 2 potential new triples. In a sub-sample of 241 close binaries, 71 have additional outer companions. The overall frequency of tertiary components is not enhanced, compared to all (non-binary) targets, but in the range of outer periods from to days (separations on the order of 500~AU), the frequency of tertiary components is 0.160.03, exceeding by almost a factor of two the frequency of similar systems among all targets (0.09).

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