Are the majority of Sun-like stars single?
Abstract
It has recently been suggested that, in the field, of Sun-like stars () are single. We argue here that this suggestion may be incorrect, since it appears to be based on the multiplicity frequency of systems with Sun-like primaries, and therefore takes no account of Sun-like stars that are secondary (or higher-order) components in multiple systems. When these components are included in the reckoning, it seems likely that only of Sun-like stars are single. This estimate is based on a model in which the system mass function has the form proposed by Chabrier, with a power-law Salpeter extension to high masses; there is a flat distribution of mass ratios; and the probability that a system of mass is a binary is for , for , and for . The constants in this last relation are chosen so that the model also reproduces the observed variation of multiplicity frequency with primary mass. However, the more qualitative conclusion, that a minority of Sun-like stars are single, holds up for virtually all reasonable values of the model parameters. Parenthetically, it is still likely that the majority of {\it all} stars in the field are single, but that is because most M Dwarfs probably are single.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1502.04018,
title = {Are the majority of Sun-like stars single?},
author = {A. P. Whitworth and O. Lomax},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.04018},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages. Accepted by MNRAS