Griffiths, D., Goodwin, S.P. and Caballero-Nieves, S.M. (2018) Massive, wide binaries as tracers of massive star formation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 476 (2). pp. 2493-2500. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
Massive stars can be found in wide (hundreds to thousands AU) binaries with other massive stars. We use N-body simulations to show that any bound cluster should always have approximately one massive wide binary: one will probably form if none are present initially; and probably only one will survive if more than one are present initially. Therefore any region that contains many massive wide binaries must have been composed of many individual subregions. Observations of Cyg OB2 show that the massive wide binary fraction is at least a half (38/74) which suggests that Cyg OB2 had at least 30 distinct massive star formation sites. This is further evidence that Cyg OB2 has always been a large, low-density association. That Cyg OB2 has a normal high-mass IMF for its total mass suggests that however massive stars form they 'randomly sample' the IMF (as the massive stars did not 'know' about each other).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Author(s). This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | binaries: general; stars: formation; stars: kinematics and dynamics; open clusters and associations: individual: Cygnus OB2 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL ST/R000964/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 16 Feb 2018 15:44 |
Last Modified: | 06 Dec 2019 10:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/sty412 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:127496 |