Finding binaries from phase modulation of pulsating stars with Kepler: V. Orbital parameters, with eccentricity and mass-ratio distributions of 341 new binaries

Abstract

The orbital parameters of binaries at intermediate periods ($10^2$--$10^3$ d) are difficult to measure with conventional methods and are very incomplete. We have undertaken a new survey, applying our pulsation timing method to {\it Kepler} light curves of 2224 main-sequence A/F stars and found 341 non-eclipsing binaries. We calculate the orbital parameters for 317 PB1 systems (single-pulsator binaries) and 24 PB2s (double-pulsators). The method reaches down to small mass ratios $q=0.02$ and yields a highly homogeneous sample. We parametrize the mass-ratio distribution using both inversion and MCMC forward-modelling techniques, and find it to be skewed towards low-mass companions, peaking at $q=0.2$. While solar-type primaries show a brown dwarf desert across intermediate periods, we find a small but significant (2.6$\sigma$) population of extreme-mass-ratio companions ($q<0.1$) to our intermediate-mass primaries. Across periods of 100--1500 d and at $q>0.1$, we measure the binary fraction of current A/F primaries to be 15.4%$\pm$1.4%, though we find that a large fraction of the companions (21%$\pm$6%) are white dwarfs in post-mass-transfer systems with primaries that are now blue stragglers, some of which are the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae, barium stars, symbiotics, and related phenomena. Excluding these white dwarfs, we find the binary fraction of original A/F primaries to be 13.9%$\pm$2.1% over the same parameter space. Combining literature measurements with ours, we find the binary fraction across these periods is a constant 5% for primaries $M_1<0.8$ M${}_{\odot }$, but then increases linearly with $\log M_1$, demonstrating that natal discs around more massive protostars $M_1>1$ M${}_{\odot }$ become increasingly more prone to fragmentation. Finally, we find the eccentricity distribution of the main-sequence pairs to be much less eccentric than the thermal distribution.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 25 pages, colour printing highly recommended for figures

References in corpus (36)

• Binary interaction dominates the evolution of massive stars
• The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): first data release
• Southern Massive Stars at High Angular Resolution: Observational Campaign and Companion Detection
• Tertiary companions to close spectroscopic binaries
• Effects of gravitational darkening on the determination of fundamental parameters in fast rotating B-type stars
• The Exoplanet Orbit Database II: Updates to exoplanets.org
• Inferring the eccentricity distribution
• Fragmentation of Massive Protostellar Disks
• Comparative statistics and origin of triple and quadruple stars
• On the Eccentricity Distribution of Exoplanets from Radial Velocity Surveys
• The impact of companions on stellar evolution
• A unifying explanation of complex frequency spectra of gamma Dor, SPB and Be stars: combination frequencies and highly non-sinusoidal light curves
• Heartbeat Stars, Tidally Excited Oscillations, and Resonance Locking
• A Survey for Spectroscopic Binaries Among Very Low-Mass Stars
• Spectroscopic survey of Kepler stars. I. HERMES/Mercator observations of A- and F-type stars
• Multiple protostellar systems. II. A high resolution near-infrared imaging survey in nearby star-forming regions
• The Evolution of the Multiplicity of Embedded Protostars II: Binary Separation Distribution & Analysis
• Finding binaries among Kepler pulsating stars from phase modulation of their pulsations
• The role of turbulent pressure as a coherent pulsational driving mechanism: the case of the delta Scuti star HD 187547
• The initial-final mass relationship from white dwarfs in common proper motion pairs
• Post Common Envelope Binaries from SDSS. V: Four eclipsing white dwarf main sequence binaries
• Binary frequency of very young brown dwarfs at separations smaller than 3 AU
• Inclusion of Binaries in Evolutionary Population Synthesis
• Characterizing the Brown Dwarf Formation Channels from the Initial Mass Function and Binary-star Dynamics
• Eclipsing binary stars with a $\delta$ Scuti component
• Pulsation versus metallicism in Am stars as revealed by LAMOST and WASP
• KIC 8164262: a Heartbeat Star Showing Tidally Induced Pulsations with Resonant Locking
• Deriving the orbital properties of pulsators in binary systems through their light arrival time delays
• The mass-ratio and eccentricity distributions of barium and S stars, and red giants in open clusters
• The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: VII. Timing of four millisecond pulsars and the underlying spin period distribution of the Galactic millisecond pulsar population
• A planet in an 840-d orbit around a Kepler main-sequence A star found from phase modulation of its pulsations
• Binary Properties from Cepheid Radial Velocities (CRaV)
• A New Class of Nascent Eclipsing Binaries with Extreme Mass Ratios
• Finding binaries from phase modulation of pulsating stars with Kepler. IV. Detection limits and radial velocity verification
• Timing of 29 Pulsars Discovered in the PALFA Survey
• Metal-Rich SX Phe stars in the Kepler Field

Cited by in corpus (51)

• {\em Gaia}-derived luminosities of {\em Kepler} A/F stars and the pulsator fraction across the δ Scuti instability strip
• Close companions around young stars
• Barium & related stars and their white-dwarf companions II. Main-sequence and subgiant stars
• Gravity-mode period spacings and near-core rotation rates of 611 $\gamma$ Doradus stars with \textit{Kepler}
• The period-luminosity relation for delta Scuti stars using Gaia DR2 parallaxes
• The Close Binary Fraction as a Function of Stellar Parameters in APOGEE: A Strong Anti-Correlation With $\alpha$ Abundances
• Characterizing Undetected Stellar Companions with Combined Datasets
• The single-sided pulsator CO~Camelopardalis
• The effect of tides on near-core rotation: analysis of 35 Kepler $\gamma$ Doradus stars in eclipsing and spectroscopic binaries
• Binarity and beyond in A stars I. Survey description and first results of VLTI/GRAVITY observations of VAST targets with high Gaia-Hipparcos accelerations
• On the first $\delta$ Sct--roAp hybrid pulsator and the stability of p and g modes in chemically peculiar A/F stars
• Revisiting the Long-Period Transiting Planets from Kepler
• A Census of Blue Stragglers in Gaia DR2 Open Clusters as a Test of Population Synthesis and Mass Transfer Physics
• Tidally Excited Oscillations in Heartbeat Binary Stars: Pulsation Phases and Mode Identification
• Highlights of Discoveries for $\delta$ Scuti Variable Stars From the Kepler Era
• Classifying Kepler light curves for 12,000 A and F stars using supervised feature-based machine learning
• Eclipse timing variation analysis of OGLE-IV eclipsing binaries toward the Galactic Bulge. I. Hierarchical triple system candidates
• Five young $\delta$ Scuti stars in the Pleiades seen with Kepler/K2
• Transiting Planets near the Snow Line from Kepler. I. Catalog
• A homogeneous spectroscopic analysis of a Kepler legacy sample of dwarfs for gravity-mode asteroseismology
• Studies of RR Lyrae Variables in Binary Systems. I.: Evidence of a Trimodal Companion Mass Distribution
• The White Dwarf Binary Pathways Survey VII: Evidence for a bi-modal distribution of post mass transfer systems?
• An asteroseismic age estimate of the open cluster NGC 6866 using Kepler and Gaia
• TIC 308396022: a $\delta$ Scuti--$\gamma$ Doradus hybrid with large-amplitude radial fundamental mode and regular g-mode period spacing
• Long-period Ap stars discovered with TESS data: The northern ecliptic hemisphere
• Then and now: A new look at the eclipse timing variations of hierarchical triple star candidates in the primordial $Kepler$-field, revisited by TESS
• The roAp stars observed by the Kepler Space Telescope
• Orbital and atmospheric parameters of two wide O-type subdwarf binaries: BD$-$11${}^{\mathrm{o}}$162 and Feige 80
• A binary with a $\delta$~Scuti star and an oscillating red giant: orbit and asteroseismology of KIC9773821
• Study of the Mass-Ratio Distribution of Spectroscopic Binaries. II. The Boundaries of the Brown-Dwarf Desert as Seen with the APOGEE Spectroscopic Binaries
• Tidally Excited Modes and $\delta$ Scuti Pulsations in the Eclipsing Triple Star IM Persei
• Illuminating a tadpole's metamorphosis III: quantifying past and present environmental impact
• KIC~8975515: a fast-rotating ($\gamma$ Dor - $\delta$ Sct) hybrid star with Rossby modes and a slower $\delta$ Sct companion in a long-period orbit
• TESS search for substellar companions through pulsation timing of $\delta$ Scuti stars. I. Discovery of companions around Chang 134 and V393 Car
• Spectroscopic confirmation of the binary nature of the hybrid pulsator KIC 5709664 found with the frequency modulation method
• Photometric variability of blue straggler stars in M67 with TESS and K2
• Anomalous Orbital Characteristics of the AQ Col (EC 05217-3914) System
• The Small Separation A-Star Companion Population: First Results with CHARA/MIRC-X
• The Potential of Detecting Nearby Terrestrial Planets in the HZ with Different Methods
• HD 42477: coupled r modes, g modes and a p mode in an A0Vnne star
• The nature of the eccentric doubled-lined eclipsing binary system KIC 2306740 with Kepler space photometry
• Observations of red giants with suspected massive companions
• Beyond binarity in A stars II. Disentangling the four stars in the vicinity of the triple HIP 87813 within the quintuple system HJ2814
• Orbital solutions derived from radial velocities and time delays for four {\it Kepler} systems with A/F-type (candidate) hybrid pulsators
• Searching for lambda Boo stars in binary systems
• KIC 10855535: An elegant Delta Scuti pulsator with Amplitude and Phase Modulation
• KIC 6951642: confirmed Kepler $\gamma$ Doradus-$\delta$ Scuti star with intermediate to fast rotation in a possible single-lined binary system
• Detection and characterisation of two VLM binaries: LP 1033-31 and LP 877-72
• The $\beta$ Pictoris b Hill sphere transit campaign. Paper II: Searching for the signatures of the $\beta$ Pictoris exoplanets through time delay analysis of the $\delta$ Scuti pulsations
• A comprehensive study of $\delta$ Scuti-type pulsators in eclipsing binaries: oscillating eclipsing Algols
• A search for transits among the δ Scuti variables in Kepler