No Arabic abstract
Binary stars play a vital role in astrophysical research, as a good fraction of stars are in binaries. Binary fraction (BF) is known to change with stellar mass in the Galactic field, but such studies in clusters require binary identification and membership information. Here, we estimate the total and spectral-type-wise high mass-ratio (HMR) BF ($f^{0.6}$) in 23 open clusters using unresolved binaries in color-magnitude diagrams using textit{Gaia} DR2 data. We introduce the segregation index (SI) parameter to trace mass segregation of HMR (total and mass-wise) binaries and the reference population. This study finds that in open clusters, (1) HMR BF for the mass range 0.4--3.6 Msun (early M to late B type) has a range of 0.12 to 0.38 with a peak at 0.12--0.20, (2) older clusters have a relatively higher HMR BF, (3) the mass-ratio distribution is unlikely to be a flat distribution and BF(total) $sim$ (1.5 to 2.5) $times f^{0.6}$, (4) a decreasing BF(total) from late B-type to K-type, in agreement with the Galactic field stars, (5) older clusters show radial segregation of HMR binaries, (6) B and A/F type HMR binaries show radial segregation in some young clusters suggesting a primordial origin. This study will constrain the initial conditions and identify the major mechanisms that regulate binary formation in clusters. Primordial segregation of HMR binaries could result from massive clumps spatially segregated in the collapse phase of the molecular cloud.
We introduce a new binary detection technique, Binary INformation from Open Clusters using SEDs (binocs), which we show is able to determine reliable stellar multiplicity and masses over a much larger mass range than current approaches. This new technique determines accurate component masses of binary and single systems of the open clusters main sequence by comparing observed magnitudes from multiple photometric filters to synthetic star spectral energy distributions (SEDs) allowing systematically probing the binary population for low mass stars in clusters for 8 well-studied open clusters. We provide new deep, infrared photometric catalogs (1.2 - 8.0 microns) for the key open clusters NGC 1960 (M36), NGC 2099 (M37), NGC 2420, and NGC2682 (M67), using observation from NOAO/NEWFIRM and Spitzer}/IRAC. Using these deep multi-wavelength catalogs, the binocs method is applied to these clusters to determine accurate component masses for unresolved cluster binaries. We explore binary fractions as a function of cluster age, Galactic location and metallicity.
We present the orbital solution of a peculiar double-lined spectroscopic and eclipsing binary system, 2M17091769+3127589. This solution was obtained by a simultaneous fit of both APOGEE radial velocities and TESS and ASAS-SN light curves to determine masses and radii. This system consists of an $M=0.256^{+0.010}_{-0.006}$ $M_odot$, $R=3.961^{+0.049}_{-0.032}$ $R_{odot}$ red giant and a hotter $M=1.518 ^{+0.057}_{-0.031}$ $M_odot$, $R=2.608^{+0.034}_{-0.321}$ $R_{odot}$ subgiant. Modelling with the MESA evolutionary codes indicates that the system likely formed 5.26 Gyrs ago, with a $M=1.2$ $M_odot$ primary that is now the systems red giant and a $M=1.11$ $M_odot$ secondary that is now a more massive subgiant. Due to Roche-lobe overflow as the primary ascends the red giant branch, the more evolved primary (i.e., originally the more massive star of the pair) is now only one-sixth as massive as the secondary. Such a difference between the initial and the current mass ratio is one of the most extreme detected so far. Evolutionary modelling suggests the system is still engaged in mass transfer, at a rate of $dot{M} sim 10^{-9}$ $M_odot$ yr$^{-1}$, and it provides an example of a less evolved precursor to some of the systems that consist of white dwarfs and blue stragglers.
We use a homogeneous catalog of 42,000 main-sequence wide binaries identified by Gaia to measure the mass ratio distribution, p(q), of binaries with primary masses $0.1<M_1/M_{odot}<2.5$, mass ratios $0.1 lesssim q<1$, and separations $50<s/{rm AU}<50,000$. A well-understood selection function allows us to constrain p(q) in 35 independent bins of primary mass and separation, with hundreds to thousands of binaries in each bin. Our investigation reveals a sharp excess of equal-mass twin binaries that is statistically significant out to separations of 1,000 to 10,000 AU, depending on primary mass. The excess is narrow: a steep increase in p(q) at $0.95 lesssim q<1$, with no significant excess at $qlesssim 0.95$. A range of tests confirm the signal is real, not a data artifact or selection effect. Combining the Gaia constraints with those from close binaries, we show that the twin excess decreases with increasing separation, but its width ($qgtrsim 0.95$) is constant over $0.01<a/{rm AU}<10,000$. The wide twin population would be difficult to explain if the components of all wide binaries formed via core fragmentation, which is not expected to produce strongly correlated component masses. We conjecture that wide twins formed at closer separations ($a lesssim 100$ AU), likely via accretion from circumbinary disks, and were subsequently widened by dynamical interactions in their birth environments. The separation-dependence of the twin excess then constrains the efficiency of dynamical widening and disruption of binaries in young clusters. We also constrain p(q) across $0.1 lesssim q<1$. Besides changes in the twin fraction, p(q) is independent of separation at fixed primary mass over $100 lesssim s/{rm AU} < 50,000$. It is flatter than expected for random pairings from the IMF but more bottom-heavy for wide binaries than for binaries with $alesssim$100 AU.
Upon their formation, dynamically cool (collapsing) star clusters will, within only a few million years, achieve stellar mass segregation for stars down to a few solar masses, simply because of gravitational two-body encounters. Since binary systems are, on average, more massive than single stars, one would expect them to also rapidly mass segregate dynamically. Contrary to these expectations and based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations, we show that the compact, 15-30 Myr-old Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1818 exhibits tantalizing hints at the >= 2 sigma level of significance (> 3 sigma if we assume a power-law secondary-to-primary mass-ratio distribution) of an increasing fraction of F-star binary systems (with combined masses of 1.3-1.6 Msun) with increasing distance from the cluster center, specifically between the inner 10 to 20 (approximately equivalent to the clusters core and half-mass radii) and the outer 60 to 80. If confirmed, this will offer support of the theoretically predicted but thus far unobserved dynamical disruption processes of the significant population of soft binary systems---with relatively low binding energies compared to the kinetic energy of their stellar members---in star clusters, which we have access to here by virtue of the clusters unique combination of youth and high stellar density.
Populations of massive stars are directly reflective of the physics of stellar evolution. Counting subtypes of massive stars and ratios of massive stars in different evolutionary states have been used ubiquitously as diagnostics of age and metallicity effects. While the binary fraction of massive stars is significant, inferences are often based upon models incorporating only single-star evolution. In this work, we utilize custom synthetic stellar populations from the Binary Population and Stellar Synthesis (BPASS) code to determine the effect of stellar binaries on number count ratios of different evolutionary stages in both young massive clusters and galaxies with massive stellar populations. We find that many ratios are degenerate in metallicity, age, and/or binary fraction. We develop diagnostic plots using these stellar count ratios to help break this degeneracy, and use these plots to compare our predictions to observed data in the Milky Way and the Local Group. These data suggest a possible correlation between the massive star binary fraction and metallicity. We also examine the robustness of our predictions in samples with varying levels of completeness. We find including binaries and imposing a completeness limit can both introduce $gtrsim0.1$ dex changes in inferred ages. Our results highlight the impact that binary evolution channels can have on the massive star population.