Stellar Multiplicity and the Initial Mass Function: Most Stars Are Single

By C. Lada. 2006

176 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this Letter I compare recent findings suggesting a low binary star fraction for late-type stars with knowledge concerning the forms of the stellar initial and present-day mass functions for masses down to the hydrogen-burning limit. This comparison indicates that most stellar systems formed in the Galaxy are likely single and not binary, as has been often asserted. Indeed, in the current epoch two-thirds of all main-sequence stellar systems in the Galactic disk are composed of single stars. Some implications of this realization for understanding the star and planet formation process are briefly mentioned.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fea1fe5c654b88625be5ab24a2f699ab251ae618

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Citations in the corpus

PLANETS AROUND LOW-MASS STARS (PALMS). IV. THE OUTER ARCHITECTURE OF M DWARF PLANETARY SYSTEMS (2014, background): “Their abundance and relatively low close binary fractions (≈30%; Fischer & Marcy 1992; Delfosse et al. 2004; Janson et al. 2012; Dieterich et al. 2012) mean that low-mass stars may also be the most common sites of planet formation (Lada 2006).”
SECULAR EVOLUTION OF COMPACT BINARIES NEAR MASSIVE BLACK HOLES: GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SOURCES AND OTHER EXOTICA (2012, background): “The binary fraction and semi-major axis distribution of observed main sequence stars in the solar neighborhood have been analyzed in many binary surveys (e.g. Duquennoy & Mayor (1991); Lada (2006) and references within).”
The Birth Environment of the Solar System (2010, background): “For completeness, we also note that since most stars are much smaller than the Sun, and smaller stars are primarily single, the majority of all stars are actually single (Lada 2006).”
HOW TO CONSTRAIN YOUR M DWARF: MEASURING EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE, BOLOMETRIC LUMINOSITY, MASS, AND RADIUS (2015, background): “It has been estimated that 40% of M dwarfs in the solar neighborhood have at least one companion within 1000 AU (Fischer & Marcy 1992; Lada 2006; Raghavan et al. 2010).”
THE INTERPLAY OF MAGNETIC FIELDS, FRAGMENTATION, AND IONIZATION FEEDBACK IN HIGH-MASS STAR FORMATION (2010, background): “They are observed to have companions with far greater frequency than low mass stars (Lada 2006; Zinnecker & Yorke 2007).”
LIMITING ACCRETION ONTO MASSIVE STARS BY FRAGMENTATION-INDUCED STARVATION (2010, background): “Massive stars usually form as members of multiple stellar systems (Ho & Haschick 1981; Lada 2006; Zinnecker & Yorke 2007) which themselves are parts of larger clusters (Lada & Lada 2003; de Wit et al. 2004; Testi et al. 1997).”
Theory of Star Formation (2007, background): “Lada (2006) finds a similar result when one averages over the entire IMF: the majority of stellar systems (as opposed to the majority of stars) are single.”
A Low-Mass Planet with a Possible Sub-Stellar-Mass Host in Microlensing Event MOA-2007-BLG-192 (2008, methodology): “The properties and prevalence of binary star systems have been studied by Duquennoy & Mayor (1991) and Lada (2006), and we can use these results for an estimate.”
Stellar Multiplicity (2013, background): “The statement that “most stellar systems formed in the Galaxy are likely single and not binary” (Lada 2006) is still undecided.”
THE VLA NASCENT DISK AND MULTIPLICITY SURVEY OF PERSEUS PROTOSTARS (VANDAM). II. MULTIPLICITY OF PROTOSTARS IN THE PERSEUS MOLECULAR CLOUD (2016, background): “The origin of stellar multiplicity has gained significant attention recently due to the downward revision of solar-type star multiplicity frequency to 0.46 (Raghavan et al. 2010) and the finding that the fraction of single M-stars is ∼0.63 (Lada 2006).”
The formation of very wide binaries during the star cluster dissolution phase (2010, background): “…of stars in the Galactic field are in binary and multiple systems (e.g, Duquennoy & Mayor 1991; Fischer & Marcy 1992; Mason et al. 1998; Shatsky & Tokovinin 2002; Goodwin & Kroupa 2005; Kobulnicky & Fryer 2007; Kouwenhoven et al. 2005, 2007; Lada 2006; Zinnecker & Yorke 2007; Goodwin et al. 2007).”
The big problems in star formation: The star formation rate, stellar clustering, and the initial mass function (2014, background): “The correction is not huge, because most low-mass stars are single (Fischer & Marcy 1992; Lada 2006; Basri & Reiners 2006; Allen 2007; Raghavan et al. 2010).”