THE HIGH ANGULAR RESOLUTION MULTIPLICITY OF MASSIVE STARS

By B. Mason, W. Hartkopf, D. Gies, T. Henry, J. Helsel. 2008

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We present the results of a speckle interferometric survey of Galactic massive stars that complements and expands upon a similar survey made over a decade ago. The speckle observations were made with the Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 4 m telescopes and USNO speckle camera, and they are sensitive to the detection of binaries in the angular separation regime between 0.″03 and 5″ with relatively bright companions (ΔV < 3). We report on the discovery of companions to 14 OB stars. In total we resolved companions of 41 of 385 O-stars (11%), 4 of 37 Wolf-Rayet stars (11%), and 89 of 139 B-stars (64%; an enriched visual binary sample that we selected for future orbital determinations). We made a statistical analysis of the binary frequency among the subsample that are listed in the Galactic O Star Catalog by compiling published data on other visual companions detected through adaptive optics studies and/or noted in the Washington Double Star Catalog and by collecting published information on radial velocities and spectroscopic binaries. We find that the binary frequency is much higher among O-stars in clusters and associations compared to the numbers for field and runaway O-stars, consistent with predictions for the ejection processes for runaway stars. We present a first orbit for the O-star δ Orionis; a linear solution of the close, apparently optical, companion of the O-star ι Orionis; and an improved orbit of the Be star δ Scorpii. Finally, we list astrometric data for another 249 resolved and 221 unresolved targets that are lower mass stars that we observed for various other science programs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3fc14c7590b8245962c63bf4472e5d22aebcb44b

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Citations in the corpus

Rotating massive main-sequence stars: II. Simulating a population of LMC early B-type stars as a test of rotational mixing (2011, background): “…is that the diagram is populated only by single stars, it is well known that a significant fraction of stars is part of a binary system (e.g., Mason et al. 2009), with a binary fraction of 0.5 or more found in young star clusters (e.g., Sana et al. 2008, 2009; Bosch et al. 2009), and with a…”
A Universal Stellar Initial Mass Function? A critical look at variations in extreme environments (2010, background): “Observations indicate that multiplicity declines with primary mass (e.g. Lada 2006): the initial binary frequency of O stars may be as high as 100% (Mason et al. 2009) dropping to ∼60% for solar-type stars (Duquennoy & Mayor 1991a,b), ∼30% for early M stars (Fischer & Marcy 1992, Reid & Gizis 1997,…”
The VAST Survey - III. The multiplicity of A-type stars within 75 pc (2013, background): “A large number of O and B-type stars have been observed with speckle interferometry (e.g. Mason et al. 1997; Hartkopf et al. 1999; Mason et al. 2009); however, the samples typically consist of stars at large distances and the technique is limited in magnitude difference sensitivity and separation…”
SPECKLE INTERFEROMETRY AT THE BLANCO AND SOAR TELESCOPES IN 2008 AND 2009 (2009, background): “05354-0555 = HIP 26241 = CHR 250Aa,Ab: New measurements confirm slow rectilinear motion of this pair due either to a long-period orbit or to Ab being an unrelated background star, in agreement with the conclusions of Mason et al. (2009).”
A spectroscopic survey on the multiplicity of high-mass stars (2012, background): “However, the high multiplicity among high-mass stars (Preibisch et al. 1999; Mason et al. 2009) might alternatively support a merging process of intermediate-mass stars (Bonnell, Bate & Zinnecker 1998).”
An investigation of the close environment of β Cephei with the VEGA/CHARA interferometer (2010, background): “A recent determination by Mason et al. (2009) gives ∆m = 3.4, which corresponds to a flux contribution to the total flux of 4%.”
Binary Interaction Dominates the Evolution of Massive Stars (2012, background): “Compared to earlier attempts to measure intrinsic orbital properties (9-14): (i) the average number of epochs per object in our sample is larger by up to a factor of five, making binary detection more complete, (ii) over three quarters of our binaries have measured orbital properties, which allowed ”
Delay-time distribution of core-collapse supernovae with late events resulting from binary interaction (2017, background): “…in our Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds show that a very large fraction have one or more companions, forming a close binary system where severe interaction between the stars during their lives is unavoidable (e.g., Kobulnicky & Fryer 2007; Mason et al. 2009; Sana et al. 2012; Chini et al. 2012).”
Mind Your Ps and Qs: The Interrelation between Period (P) and Mass-ratio (Q) Distributions of Binary Stars (2016, background): “Mason et al. (2009) and Caballero-Nieves et al. (2014) have discovered visual companions to other O-type stars, but these two surveys are limited to small optical brightness contrasts ∆V .”
Stellar, brown dwarf and multiple star properties from a radiation hydrodynamical simulation of star cluster formation (2011, background): “…stellar mass (massive stars: Mason et al. 1998; Preibisch et al. 1999; Shatsky & Tokovinin 2002; Kobulnicky & Fryer 2007; Kouwenhoven et al. 2007b; Mason et al. 2009; intermediate-mass stars: Patience et al. 2002; solar-type stars: Duquennoy & Mayor 1991; Raghavan et al. 2010; M-dwarfs: Fischer &…”
A STELLAR ROTATION CENSUS OF B STARS: FROM ZAMS TO TAMS (2010, background): “Secondly, we know that the binary frequency is high among the massive O-stars (Mason et al. 2009).”
TOWARD COMPLETE STATISTICS OF MASSIVE BINARY STARS: PENULTIMATE RESULTS FROM THE CYGNUS OB2 RADIAL VELOCITY SURVEY (2014, background): “Other large studies of binarity among massive stars include the spectroscopic surveys of Garmany et al. (1980), Sana et al. (2012), and Chini et al. (2012) as well as the imaging surveys of Kouwenhoven et al. (2007) and Mason et al. (2009).”
Stellar Multiplicity (2013, background): “…is compatible with available observations (Kiminki & Kobulnicky 2012), imaging surveys which repeatedly find a “peak” at the shortest probed angular separations rather support a slowly declining distribution instead (Mason et al. 2009, Nelan et al. 2004, Peter et al. 2012, Sana et al. 2011).”
THE INCIDENCE OF STELLAR MERGERS AND MASS GAINERS AMONG MASSIVE STARS (2013, background): “Young massive stars are predominantly found in close binary systems (e.g. Mason et al. 2009; Sana & Evans 2011; Chini et al. 2012).”
THE GALACTIC O-STAR SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY. I. CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM AND BRIGHT NORTHERN STARS IN THE BLUE-VIOLET AT R ∼ 2500 (2011, background): “The A component in this system appears unresolved in Mason et al. (2009).”
THE ASTRALUX LARGE M-DWARF MULTIPLICITY SURVEY (2012, background): “…the multiplicity fraction is higher for Sun-like stars at 46%–67% (Duquennoy & Mayor 1991; Raghavan et al. 2010), yet higher for yet more massive stars at >70% (e.g., Shatsky & Tokovinin 2002; Mason et al. 2009), and lower for brown dwarfs at 10%–30% (e.g., Burgasser et al. 2003; Joergens 2008).”
THE GALACTIC O-STAR SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY (GOSSS). II. BRIGHT SOUTHERN STARS (2013, methodology): “We have also searched the literature (e.g. Nelan et al. 2004, Mason et al. 2009, Aldoretta et al. in preparation) for additional data.”