Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-07-02
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Accepted for publication by the ApJS. 182 pages, including 24 figures and 18 tables. The Abstract on astro-ph has been trimmed
Scientific paper
We present the results of a comprehensive assessment of companions to solar-type stars. A sample of 454 stars, including the Sun, was selected from the Hipparcos catalog with {\pi} > 40 mas, {\sigma}_{\pi}/{\pi} < 0.05, 0.5 < B - V < 1.0 (~ F6-K3), and constrained by absolute magnitude and color to exclude evolved stars. New observational aspects of this work include surveys for (1) very close companions with long-baseline interferometry at the CHARA Array, (2) close companions with speckle interferometry, and (3) wide proper motion companions identified by blinking multi-epoch archival images. In addition, we include the results from extensive radial-velocity monitoring programs and evaluate companion information from various catalogs. The overall observed fractions of single, double, triple, and higher order systems are 56% \pm 2%, 33% \pm 2%, 8% \pm 1%, and 3% \pm 1%, respectively, counting all confirmed stellar and brown dwarf companions. Our completeness analysis indicates that only a few undiscovered companions remain in this well-studied sample, implying that the majority (54% \pm 2%) of solar-type stars are single, in contrast to the results of prior multiplicity studies. The orbital-period distribution of companions is unimodal and roughly log-normal with a peak of about 300 years. The period-eccentricity relation shows a roughly flat distribution beyond the expected circularization for periods below 12 days. The mass-ratio distribution shows a preference for like-mass pairs, which occur more frequently in relatively close pairs. The fraction of planet hosts among single, binary, and multiple systems are statistically indistinguishable, suggesting that planets are as likely to form around single stars as they are around components of binary or multiple systems with sufficiently wide separations.
Gies Douglas R.
Henry Todd J.
Latham David W.
Marcy Geoffrey W.
Mason Brian D.
No associations
LandOfFree
A Survey of Stellar Families: Multiplicity of Solar-Type Stars does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Survey of Stellar Families: Multiplicity of Solar-Type Stars, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Survey of Stellar Families: Multiplicity of Solar-Type Stars will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-727573