Are the majority of Sun-like stars single?

Whitworth, Anthony Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1178-5486 and Lomax, Oliver David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1641-4318 2015. Are the majority of Sun-like stars single? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 448 (2) , pp. 1761-1766. 10.1093/mnras/stv093

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

It has recently been suggested that, in the field, ∼56 per cent of Sun-like stars (0.8 M⊙ ≲ M⋆ ≲ 1.2 M⊙) are single. We argue here that this suggestion may be incorrect, since it appears to be based on the multiplicity frequency of systems with Sun-like primaries, and therefore takes no account of Sun-like stars that are secondary (or higher order) components in multiple systems. When these components are included in the reckoning, it seems likely that only ∼46 per cent of Sun-like stars are single. This estimate is based on a model in which the system mass function has the form proposed by Chabrier, with a power-law Salpeter extension to high masses; there is a flat distribution of mass ratios; and the probability that a system of mass M is a binary is  0.50 + 0.46 log10(M/M⊙)  for  0.08 M⊙ ≤ M ≤ 12.5 M⊙,  0  for  M < 0.08 M⊙, and  1  for  M > 12.5 M⊙. The constants in this last relation are chosen so that the model also reproduces the observed variation of multiplicity frequency with primary mass. However, the more qualitative conclusion, that a minority of Sun-like stars are single, holds up for virtually all reasonable values of the model parameters. Parenthetically, it is still likely that the majority of all stars in the field are single, but that is because most M Dwarfs probably are single.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA) Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2022 10:36
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/78902

Citation Data

Cited 4 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item