Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 421, Issue 3, Pages 2025-2042Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20437.x
Keywords
methods: numerical; binaries: general; stars: formation; stars: kinematics and dynamics; open clusters and associations: general
Categories
Funding
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/J001627/1, ST/J001589/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/J001589/1, ST/J001627/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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We have collated multiplicity data for five clusters (Taurus, Chamaeleon I, Ophiuchus, IC 348 and the Orion Nebula Cluster). We have applied the same mass ratio (flux ratios of ?K= 2.5) and primary mass cuts ( 0.13.0 M?) to each cluster and therefore have directly comparable binary statistics for all five clusters in the separation range 62620 au, and for Taurus, Chamaeleon I and Ophiuchus in the range 18830 au. We find that the trend of decreasing binary fraction with cluster density is solely due to the high binary fraction of Taurus; the other clusters show no obvious trend over a factor of nearly 20 in density. With N-body simulations, we attempt to find a set of initial conditions that are able to reproduce the density, morphology and binary fractions of all five clusters. Only an initially clumpy (fractal) distribution with an initial total binary fraction of 73 per cent (17 per cent in the range 62-620 au) is able to reproduce all of the observations (albeit not very satisfactorily). Therefore, if star formation is universal, then the initial conditions must be clumpy and with a high (but not 100 per cent) binary fraction. This could suggest that most stars, including M dwarfs, form in binaries.
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