Tertiary Companions to Close Spectroscopic Binaries

By A. Tokovinin, S. Thomas, M. Sterzik, S. Udry. 2006

374 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have surveyed a sample of 165 solar-type spectroscopic binaries (SB) with periods from 1 to 30 days for higher-order multiplicity. A subsample of 62 targets were observed with the NACO adaptive optics system and 13 new physical tertiary companions were detected. An additional 12 new wide companions (5 still tentative) were found using the 2MASS all-sky survey. The binaries belong to 161 stellar systems; of these 64 are triple, 11 quadruple and 7 quintuple. After correction for incompleteness, the fraction of SBs with additional companions is found to be 63% ± 5%. We find that this fraction is a strong function of the SB period P , reaching 96% for $P 12^{\rm d}$. Period distributions of SBs with and without tertiaries are significantly different, but their mass ratio distributions are identical. The statistical data on the multiplicity of close SBs presented in this paper indicates that the periods and mass ratios of SBs were established very early, but the periods of SB systems with triples were further shortened by angular momentum exchange with companions.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fe36c7d3c01273c63017e0409a70880ca3d0ba0a

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Citations in the corpus

Multiplicity among Solar-type Stars (2017, background): “The longstanding enigma of the formation of close spectroscopic binaries, for instance, is understood today as a sequel of orbital evolution that is driven by distant companions (cf. Tokovinin et al. 2006).”
The Close Binary Fraction of Solar-type Stars Is Strongly Anticorrelated with Metallicity (2018, background): “In addition, the majority of very close binaries with P7 days have tertiary companions (Tokovinin et al. 2006), so most EBs also have third-light contamination.”
AN EFFICIENT AUTOMATED VALIDATION PROCEDURE FOR EXOPLANET TRANSIT CANDIDATES (2012, result): “…use a pareddown “close hierarchical fraction,” under the assumption that most systems in triple and higherorder systems will undergo significant orbital evolution over their lifetimes, ending up with at least one close pair—and according to studies that have observed this (Tokovinin et al. 2006).”
Properties of planets in binary systems - The role of binary separation (2006, background): “The fact that the hosts of massive planets in close orbit are typically binaries somewhat resembles the results by Tokovinin et al. (2006) i.e. short-period spectroscopic binaries have in most cases a further companion.”
Unresolved stellar companions with Gaia DR2 astrometry (2020, result): “Nonetheless, our estimate is in good agreement with previous studies (e.g. Tokovinin et al. 2006; Tokovinin 2014).”
Mind Your Ps and Qs: The Interrelation between Period (P) and Mass-ratio (Q) Distributions of Binary Stars (2016, background): “Unfortunately, we cannot repeat the Tokovinin et al. (2006) measurement for early-type systems due to the observational selection effects and incompleteness.”
PLANETS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS (PALMS). IV. THE OUTER ARCHITECTURE OF M DWARF PLANETARY SYSTEMS (2014, background): “Indeed, Tokovinin et al. (2006) found the empirical limit for dynamical stability of triple star systems is near period ratios of 5 (that is, P3/P1>5), which may be a more realistic boundary.”
LOW-MASS TERTIARY COMPANIONS TO SPECTROSCOPIC BINARIES. I. COMMON PROPER MOTION SURVEY FOR WIDE COMPANIONS USING 2MASS (2009, methodology): “Here we report the first results from a study to measure the wide tertiary fraction around spectroscopic binaries via CPM, using 2MASS as a first epoch and our own deep near-infrared imaging as the second epoch, which Tokovinin et al. (2006) did not carry out.”
THE PALOMAR/KECK ADAPTIVE OPTICS SURVEY OF YOUNG SOLAR ANALOGS: EVIDENCE FOR A UNIVERSAL COMPANION MASS FUNCTION (2008, background): “%) of visual companions to close (spectroscopic) binary systems (Tokovinin et al. 2006).”
The evolution of hierarchical triple star-systems (2016, background): “Observationally, 96% of close low-mass MS binaries are indeed part of a triple system (Tokovinin et al., 2006).”
CHARACTERIZING THE COOL KOIs. III. KOI 961: A SMALL STAR WITH LARGE PROPER MOTION AND THREE SMALL PLANETS (2012, background): “…use a higher short-orbit probability for a hierarchical system than for an isolated binary motivated by the observation that many close binaries have distant companions (Tokovinin et al. 2006)], and an eclipse probability of 0.10 (corresponding to two 0.15 R⊙ stars in a 1.2 day orbit).”
Stellar Multiplicity (2013, background): “B Stellar Multiplicity 31 Reipurth, D Jewitt, K Keil, p. 427.”
THE ASTRALUX LARGE M-DWARF MULTIPLICITY SURVEY (2012, background): “This system is noted as being triple in Tokovinin et al. (2006), including a close spectroscopic binary pair with approximately 1.3 mas separation and a likely wider companion at 11′′ separation.”
TESS Eclipsing Binary Stars. I. Short-cadence Observations of 4584 Eclipsing Binaries in Sectors 1–26 (2021, background): “Finally, it is now well established that short-period binary stars are very frequently found in hierarchical triple systems, with a tertiary companion on a much larger orbit around the tight binary (see, e.g., Tokovinin et al. 2006; Laos et al. 2020, and references therein).”
Observational Evidence for Tidal Interaction in Close Binary Systems (2007, background): “The Tokovinin et al. (2006) result, that 96% of binaries with periods shorter than 3 days have a third companion, might be a strong evidence for the Mazeh & Shaham conjecture.”