Related papers: The Case for an Early Solar Binary Companion

This doctoral thesis studies stellar multiplicity in the solar neighborhood (d < 10 pc) and in systems hosting planets (d < 100 pc). Using data from the Washington Double Star Catalogue, Gaia DR3, and a comprehensive literature review, it…

We discuss the detectability of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") in extrasolar planetary systems that are formed through orbital instability followed by planet-planet dynamical tides during…

Disk material has been observed around both components of some young close binary star systems. It has been shown that if planets form at the right places within such disks, they can remain dynamically stable for very long times. Herein, we…

Context. The presence of a stellar companion can strongly influence the architecture and long-term stability of planetary systems. Motivated by the discovery of exoplanets exhibiting extremely high eccentricities (e >= 0.8) in systems with…

Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex,…

Dusty protoplanetary disks surrounding young low-mass stars are the birthplaces of planets. Studies of the evolutionary timescales of such disks provide important constraints on the timescales of planet formation. Binary companions,…

We present results of the CFHT adaptive optics search for companions of a homogeneous group of contact binary stars, as a contribution to our attempts to prove a hypothesis that these binaries require a third star to become so close as…

Many recent observational studies have concluded that planetary systems commonly exist in multiple-star systems. At least ~20%, and presumably a larger fraction of the known extrasolar planetary systems are associated with one or more…

Young intermediate-mass stars have become high-priority targets for direct-imaging planet searches following the recent discoveries of planets orbiting e.g. HR 8799 and Beta Pictoris. Close stellar companions to these stars can affect the…

This paper explores the stability of an Earth-like planet orbiting a solar-mass star in the presence of a stellar companion using ~ 400,000 numerical integrations. Given the chaotic nature of the systems being considered, we perform a…

The solar galactic neighbourhood contains a number of young co-moving associations of stars (so-called `young moving groups') with ages of ~10--150 Myr, which are prime targets for a range of scientific studies, including direct imaging…

We report the detection of sixteen binary systems from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search. Solutions to the radial velocity data indicate that the stars have companions orbiting with a wide range of masses, eccentricities and periods. Three…

For three decades, adaptive optic surveys have revealed an excess of T Tauri binaries across a = 10-100 au in nearby star-forming regions compared to the field population of main-sequence (MS) stars. Such an excess requires that most stars…

Binarity has been hypothesised to play an important, if not ubiquitous, role in the formation of planetary nebulae (PNe). Yet there remains a severe paucity of known binary central stars required to test the binary hypothesis and to place…

Almost half of the stellar systems in the solar neighborhood are made up of multiple stars. In multiple-star systems, planet formation is under the dynamical influence of stellar companions, and the planet occurrence rate is expected to be…

Observations of young star-forming regions suggest that star clusters are born completely mass segregated. These initial conditions are, however, gradually lost as the star cluster evolves dynamically. For star clusters with single stars…

Binaries play a critical role in the formation, evolution, and fundamental properties of planets, stars, and stellar associations. Observational studies in these areas often include a mix of observations aimed at detecting or ruling out the…

In an attempt to determine how many planetary nebulae derive from binary interactions, we have started a project to measure their unbiased binary fraction. This number, when compared to the binary fraction of the presumed parent population…

In recent years several planets have been discovered at wide orbits (>100 AU) around their host stars. Theoretical studies encounter difficulties in explaining their formation and origin. Here we propose a novel scenario for the production…

Motivated by recent measurements of the free-floating planet mass function at terrestrial masses, we consider the possibility that the solar system may have captured a terrestrial planet early in its history. We show that $\sim 1.2$…