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Early Orbital Evolution of Binaries: Overview and Outlook
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2016
Abstract
The orbital evolution of a young binary star is strongly affected by the circumstellar disks orbiting each of the stars, and/or the circumbinary disk orbiting about the entire binary. Calculation of the evolution requires the knowledge of disk structure (resonantly emitted density and bending waves, disk gap sizes, possible secular nonaxisymmetry), as well as of any gas streamers falling onto the binary. While the diagnostic signatures of the binary-disk interaction are observable (and have recently been observed), the orbital evolution cannot directly be observed so far, because of long associated time scales. Hence, theory is crucial for understanding the evolutionary stage and the future of the observed systems. We briefly review the status of the theory of orbital evolution and discuss several topics requiring further theoretical work.
- Type
- X. Evolution of Young Binary Systems
- Information
- Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 200: The Formation of Binary Stars , 2001 , pp. 439 - 448
- Copyright
- Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001
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