Related papers: Resolving subdwarf B stars in binaries by HST imag…
Hot subdwarf stars (sdO/Bs) are the stripped cores of red giants located at the bluest extension of the horizontal branch. They constitute the dominant population of UV-bright stars in old stellar environments and are most likely formed by…
Many problems in contemporary astrophysics---from understanding the formation of black holes to untangling the chemical evolution of galaxies---rely on knowledge about binary stars. This, in turn, depends on discovery and characterization…
Models of binary star interactions have been successful in explaining the origin of field hot subdwarf (sdB) stars in short period systems, but longer-period systems that formed via Roche-lobe overflow (RLOF) mass transfer from the present…
(Abbreviated) We have used precise radial velocity measurements of subdwarf-B stars from the Palomar-Green catalogue to look for binary extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars. We identify 36 EHB stars in our sample and find that at least 21…
Radial velocity curves for 15 bright subdwarf B binary systems have been measured using high precision radial velocity measurements from high S/N optical high-resolution spectra. In addition, two bright sdB stars are discovered to be radial…
Many hot subdwarf B stars (sdBs) are in close binaries, and the favored formation channels for subdwarfs rely on mass transfer in a binary system to strip a core He burning star of its envelope. However, these channels cannot account for…
Previous studies on the rotation of Sun-like stars revealed that the rotational rates of young stars converge towards a well-defined evolution that follows a power-law decay. It seems, however, that some binary stars do not obey this…
Observations at various wavelengths of late B-type stars exhibiting strong overabundances of the chemical elements Hg and Mn in their atmospheres indicate that these stars are frequently found in binary and multiple systems. We intend to…
We describe radial velocity observations of a large sample of apparently single white dwarfs (WDs), obtained in a long-term effort to discover close, double-degenerate (DD) pairs which might comprise viable Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia)…
Although the sample of exoplanets in binaries has been greatly expanded, the sample heterogeneity and observational bias are obstacles toward a clear figure of exoplanet demographics in the binary environment. To overcome the obstacles, we…
We report on the results of a survey for radial velocity variability in a heterogeneous sample of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. One distinguishing characteristic of the survey is its timespan, which allows an overlap between…
The formation of single sdB stars is an unresolved issue and the presence of close sub-stellar companions could explain the stellar envelope ejection near the tip of the RGB, that is needed to form an sdB star. In the last 6 years the first…
We present analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images of 82 nearby field late-M and L dwarfs. We resolve 13 of these systems into double M/L dwarf systems and identify an additional possible binary. Combined with previous observations of 20…
Microlensing is one of the most promising methods of reconstructing the stellar mass function down to masses even below the hydrogen-burning limit. The fundamental limit to this technique is the presence of unresolved binaries, which can in…
In the course of our search for double degenerate binaries as potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae with the ESO VLT (ESO SN Ia Progenitor SurveY SPY) several new subdwarf B (sdB) binaries with sdB primary components were discovered.…
We present new orbital solutions for 15 binaries, which were astrometrically measured during 2010-2013. We observe the binary systems using the FastCam ``lucky-imaging'' camera, installed at the 1.5-m Carlos S\'anchez Telescope (CST) at the…
We use analytical and N-body methods to examine the survival of wide stellar binaries against repeated encounters with dark substructures orbiting in the dark matter haloes of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). Our models adopt…
Accurate determinations of masses and radii in binary stars, along with estimates of the effective temperatures, metallicities, and other properties, have long been used to test models of stellar evolution. As might be expected,…
We present the analysis of a high-resolution, high-quality sample of optical spectra for 76 subdwarf B (sdB) stars from the ESO Supernova Ia Progenitor Survey (SPY). Effective temperature, surface gravity, and photospheric helium abundance…
Hot subdwarfs are considered to be the compact helium cores of red giants, which lost almost their entire hydrogen envelope. What causes this enormous mass loss is still unclear. Binary interactions are invoked and a significant fraction of…