Stellar Multiplicity

2013/03/12 by Gaspard Duchêne, Adam L. Kraus, Adam Kraus · 76 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081710-102602

original version submitted to ARA&A, final version to appear in vol. 51, comments welcome, 38 pages, 5 figures

arxiv created 2013/03/12 · openalex publication_date 2013/06/29 · arxiv updated 2016/11/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Stellar multiplicity is an ubiquitous outcome of the star formation process. Characterizing the frequency and main characteristics of multiple systems and their dependencies on primary mass and environment is therefore a powerful tool to probe this process. While early attempts were fraught with selection biases and limited completeness, instrumentation breakthroughs in the last two decades now enable robust analyses. In this review, we summarize our current empirical knowledge of stellar multiplicity for Main Sequence stars and brown dwarfs, as well as among populations of Pre-Main Sequence stars and embedded protostars. Clear trends as a function of both primary mass and stellar evolutionary stage are identified that will serve as a comparison basis for numerical and analytical models of star formation.

Citations

• Sparse Aperture Masking of Massive Stars
• Binary fraction in low-mass star forming regions: a reexamination of the possible excesses and implications
• A High-Contrast Imaging Survey ofSIM LitePlanet Search Targets
• THE LYOT PROJECT DIRECT IMAGING SURVEY OF SUBSTELLAR COMPANIONS: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND INFORMATION FROM NONDETECTIONS
• Multiplicity of Nearby Free-floating Ultracool Dwarfs: AHubble Space TelescopeWFPC2 Search for Companions
• THE EVOLUTION OF THE MULTIPLICITY OF EMBEDDED PROTOSTARS. II. BINARY SEPARATION DISTRIBUTION AND ANALYSIS
• The First Discovery of a Wide Binary Brown Dwarf
• The discovery of an M4+T8.5 binary system
• The Radial Velocity Distribution of Class I and Flat-Spectrum Protostars
• A Survey for Young Spectroscopic Binary K7–M4 Stars in Ophiuchus
• Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light-Years from Earth
• A catalogue of multiplicity among bright stellar systems
• A Multiplicity Census of Young Stars in Chamaeleon I
• Star Formation via the Little Guy: A Bayesian Study of Ultracool Dwarf Imaging Surveys for Companions
• Keck NIRSPEC Radial Velocity Observations of Late-M dwarfs
• A High Angular Resolution Multiplicity Survey of the Open Clusters α Persei and Praesepe
• AHubble Space TelescopeWide Field Planetary Camera 2 Survey for Brown Dwarf Binaries in the α Persei and Pleiades Open Clusters
• Detection of Nine M8.0–L0.5 Binaries: The Very Low Mass Binary Population and Its Implications for Brown Dwarf and Very Low Mass Star Formation
• Very Wide Binaries and Other Comoving Stellar Companions: A Bayesian Analysis of the Hipparcos Catalogue
• The Origin of Binary Stars
• Multiple protostellar systems
• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Observations of Brown Dwarfs
• The Exoplanet Orbit Database
• Theory of Star Formation
• Mass constraints on substellar companion candidates from the re-reduced Hipparcos intermediate astrometric data: Nine confirmed planets and two confirmed brown dwarfs
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• A Giant Planet Candidate near a Young Brown Dwarf
• The formation and evolution of binary systems

Cited by

• Building and Calibrating the Binary Star Population Using Kepler Data
• Rate of WD-WD head-on collisions in isolated triples is too low to explain standard type Ia supernovae
• Extreme magnification of an individual star at redshift 1.5 by a galaxy-cluster lens
• Accretion and Recovery in Giant Eruptions of Massive Stars
• High energy extragalactic multimessenger backgrounds from starburst and dead galaxies
• THE IMPACT OF STELLAR MULTIPLICITY ON PLANETARY SYSTEMS. I. THE RUINOUS INFLUENCE OF CLOSE BINARY COMPANIONS
• The Case for an Early Solar Binary Companion
• THE X-RAY LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF M37 AND THE EVOLUTION OF CORONAL ACTIVITY IN LOW-MASS STARS
• Observation of Double Star by Long Baseline Interferometry
• Reconciling 56Ni production in Type Ia supernovae with double degenerate scenarios
• Implications of the gravitational wave event GW150914
• SURVEYING THE BRIGHT STARS BY OPTICAL INTERFEROMETRY. I. A SEARCH FOR MULTIPLICITY AMONG STARS OF SPECTRAL TYPES F-K
• Nearby Quintuple Systems κ Tucanae and ξ Scorpii
• Binary energy source of the HH 250 outflow and its circumstellar environment
• Detecting unresolved binary stars inEuclidVIS images
• Far and extreme ultraviolet radiation fields and consequent disc destruction in star-forming regions
• RETRACTED: Direct imaging discovery of a Jovian exoplanet within a triple-star system
• LHS 1610A: A Nearby Mid-M Dwarf with a Companion That Is Likely a Brown Dwarf
• Two close binaries across the hydrogen-burning limit in the Praesepe open cluster
• Protoplanetary Disks in ρ Ophiuchus as Seen from ALMA
• The first gravitational-wave source from the isolated evolution of two stars in the 40–100 solar mass range
• The properties of discs around planets and brown dwarfs as evidence for disc fragmentation
• Where are the double-degenerate progenitors of Type Ia supernovae?
• Impact of binary stars on planet statistics – I. Planet occurrence rates and trends with stellar mass
• Flares in open clusters with K2
• BEAST begins: sample characteristics and survey performance of the B-star Exoplanet Abundance Study
• THE κ ANDROMEDAE SYSTEM: NEW CONSTRAINTS ON THE COMPANION MASS, SYSTEM AGE, AND FURTHER MULTIPLICITY
• Orbital Motion of Young Binaries in Ophiuchus and Upper Centaurus–Lupus
• Binary Star Population with Common Proper Motion in Gaia DR2
• Fear the Shadows of the Giants: On Secular Perturbations in Circumstellar Habitable Zones of Double Stars
• Using failed supernovae to constrain the Galactic r-process element production
• Forty-four New and Known M-dwarf Multiples in the SDSS-III/APOGEE M-dwarf Ancillary Science Sample
• The discrepancy between dynamical and theoretical mass in the triplet-system 2MASS J10364483+1521394
• AN HST SURVEY FOR 100–1000 au COMPANIONS AROUND YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS IN THE ORION MOLECULAR CLOUDS: EVIDENCE FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY DEPENDENT MULTIPLICITY
• A census of OB stars within 1 kpc and the star formation and core collapse supernova rates of the Milky Way
• V773 Cas, QS Aql, AND BR Ind: ECLIPSING BINARIES AS PARTS OF MULTIPLE SYSTEMS*
• Discovery of wide low and very low-mass binary systems using Virtual Observatory tools
• Dust formation and the binary companions of supernovae
• Multiple Stellar Evolution: a population synthesis algorithm to model the stellar, binary, and dynamical evolution of multiple-star systems
• Runaway and walkaway stars from the ONC with Gaia DR2
• Energy optimization in binary star systems: explanation for equal mass members in close orbits
• Core-collapse supernovae in binaries as the origin of galactic hyper-runaway stars
• Stellar multiplicity affects the correlation between proto-planetary disc masses and accretion rates: binaries explain high-accretors in Upper Sco
• Phase II of the LAMOST-Kepler/K2 Survey. I. Time Series of Medium-resolution Spectroscopic Observations
• Three-dimensional simulation of a core-collapse supernova for a binary star progenitor of SN 1987A
• TheGaia-ESO Survey: double-, triple-, and quadruple-line spectroscopic binary candidates
• How does a low-mass cut-off in the stellar IMF affect the evolution of young star clusters?
• CLUSTER DYNAMICS LARGELY SHAPES PROTOPLANETARY DISK SIZES
• Tidal Synchronization and Differential Rotation of Kepler Eclipsing Binaries
• TheGaia-ESO Survey: a kinematical and dynamical study of four young open clusters
• Hydrodynamic Winds from Twin-star Binaries
• Dynamical ejections of massive stars from young star clusters under diverse initial conditions
• Observational signatures of microlensing in gravitational waves at LIGO/Virgo frequencies
• Impact of massive binary star and cosmic evolution on gravitational wave observations I: black hole–neutron star mergers
• A Radial velocity survey of spatially resolved young, low-mass binaries
• Greatly Enhanced Merger Rates of Compact-object Binaries in Non-spherical Nuclear Star Clusters
• Double stars with wide separations in the AGK3 – II. The wide binaries and the multiple systems
• Binary companions of nearby supernova remnants found withGaia
• Spirals, shadows, and precession in HD 100453 – I. The orbit of the binary
• The Gaia 20 pc white dwarf sample
• Binary Population Synthesis
• Dynamical detection of three triple stellar systems in open clusters
• A self-consistent, absolute isochronal age scale for young moving groups in the solar neighbourhood
• Science with the TianQin Observatory: Preliminary results on Galactic double white dwarf binaries
• Constraining the multiplicity statistics of the coolest brown dwarfs: binary fraction continues to decrease with spectral type
• Do individualSpitzeryoung stellar object candidates enclose multiple UKIDSS sources?
• Searching for TESS Photometric Variability of Possible JWST Spectrophotometric Standard Stars
• Dynamical Formation of Close Binaries during the Pre-main-sequence Phase
• The Volume-complete Sample of M Dwarfs with Masses 0.1 ≤ M/M⊙ ≤ 0.3 within 15 Parsecs
• Statistics of Wide Pre-main-sequence Binaries in the Orion OB1 Association
• Binary Companions of Evolved Stars in APOGEE DR14: Search Method and Catalog of ∼5000 Companions
• Orbital Parameters of 665 Double-lined Spectroscopic Binaries in the LAMOST Medium-Resolution Survey
• Probing Binary Lens Caustics with Gravitational Waves: A Uniform Approximation Approach
• The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems
• Understanding discs in binary YSOs – detailed modelling of VV CrA
• Globular cluster [wikipedia]

Related

• The Origin and Evolution of Multiple Star Systems
• A catalogue of multiplicity among bright stellar systems
• New observational frontiers in the multiplicity of young stars
• Stellar multiplicity: an interdisciplinary nexus
• Numerical Results on Low Mass Star and Brown Dwarf Multiplicity