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The majority of massive stars ($>8$ $rm{M_{odot}}$) in OB associations are found in close binary systems. Nonetheless, the formation mechanism of these close massive binaries is not understood yet. Using literature data, we measured the radial-velocity dispersion ($sigma_mathrm{RV}$) as a proxy for the close binary fraction in ten OB associations in the Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud, spanning an age range from 1 to 6 Myrs. We find a positive trend of this dispersion with the clusters age, which is consistent with binary hardening. Assuming a universal binary fraction of $f_mathrm{bin}$ = 0.7, we converted the $sigma_mathrm{RV}$ behavior to an evolution of the minimum orbital period $P_mathrm{cutoff}$ from $sim$9.5 years at 1 Myr to $sim$1.4 days for the oldest clusters in our sample at $sim$6 Myr. Our results suggest that binaries are formed at larger separations, and they harden in around 1 to 2 Myrs to produce the period distribution observed in few million year-old OB binaries. Such an inward migration may either be driven by an interaction with a remnant accretion disk or with other young stellar objects present in the system. Our findings constitute the first empirical evidence in favor of migration as a scenario for the formation of massive close binaries.
Many young extra-galactic clusters have a measured velocity dispersion that is too high for the mass derived from their age and total luminosity, which has led to the suggestion that they are not in virial equilibrium. Most of these clusters are conf
Recent discoveries have put the picture of stellar clusters being simple stellar populations into question. In particular, the color-magnitude diagrams of intermediate age (1-2 Gyr) massive clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) show features t
There is growing evidence that star clusters can no longer be considered simple stellar populations (SSPs). Intermediate and old age clusters are often found to have extended main sequence turn-offs (eMSTOs) which are difficult to explain with single
A relation between the mass accretion rate onto the central young star and the mass of the surrounding protoplanetary disk has long been theoretically predicted and observationally sought. For the first time, we have accurately and homogeneously dete
We present color-magnitude diagram analysis of deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging of a mass-limited sample of 18 intermediate-age (1 - 2 Gyr old) star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds, including 8 clusters for which new data was obtained. We find t