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What Can Pre-Main Sequence Binary Star Populations Tell Us about Binary Formation Mechanisms?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2016
Abstract
We review current observations of binary star populations with particular attention to what insight these populations can give us into the problem of how binary stars form. Significant progress has been made in the past few years, revealing variations as a function of site, primary star mass, and binary star separations. The variations in the binary star population with type of star formation site in comparison with the field, suggests that ∼30% of the field binaries formed in loose T associations and ∼70% formed in the dense progenitors of open clusters. Variations with mass and separation on the whole are well matched by the predictions of fragmentation followed by competitive accretion. However, there remains much work to be done on both the observational and theoretical end before a complete picture of binary star formation can be developed.
- Type
- VI. Binary Populations in Young Clusters
- Information
- Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 200: The Formation of Binary Stars , 2001 , pp. 210 - 218
- Copyright
- Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001
References
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