Orbital Separation Amplification in Fragile Binaries with Evolved Components

K. B. Johnston, Terry D. Oswalt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The secular stellar mass-loss causes an amplification of the orbital separation in fragile, common proper motion, binary systems with separations of the order of 1000 A.U. In these systems, companions evolve as two independent coeval stars as they experience negligible mutual tidal interactions or mass transfer. We present models for how post-main sequence mass-loss statistically distorts the frequency distribution of separations in fragile binaries. These models demonstrate the expected increase in orbital seapration resulting from stellar mass-loss, as well as a perturbation of associated orbital parameters. Comparisons between our models and observations resulting from the Luyten survey of wide visual binaries, specifically those containing MS and white-dwarf pairs, demonstrate a good agreement between the calculated and the observed angular separation distribution functions.

Original languageAmerican English
JournalNew Astronomy
Volume17
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 22 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • binaries: general
  • stars: statistics
  • white dwarfs

Disciplines

  • Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

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