Issue |
A&A
Volume 442, Number 3, November II 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 1003 - 1013 | |
Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20042541 | |
Published online | 14 October 2005 |
Eclipsing binary statistics – Theory and observation
Lund Observatory, Box 43, 22100 Lund, Sweden e-mail: [staffan;johann]@astro.lu.se
Received:
15
December
2004
Accepted:
20
May
2005
The expected distributions of eclipse-depth versus
period for eclipsing binaries of different luminosities are derived
from large-scale population synthesis experiments. Using the rapid
Hurley et al. BSE binary evolution code, we have evolved several
hundred million binaries, starting from various simple input
distributions of masses and orbit-sizes. Eclipse probabilities and
predicted distributions over period and eclipse-depth (P/) are given in a number of main-sequence intervals, from O-stars
to brown dwarfs. The comparison between theory and Hipparcos
observations shows that a standard (Duquennoy & Mayor) input
distribution of orbit-sizes (a) gives reasonable numbers and
P/
-distributions, as long as the mass-ratio distribution
is also close to the observed flat ones. A random pairing model,
where the primary and secondary are drawn independently from the
same IMF, gives more than an order of magnitude too few eclipsing
binaries on the upper main sequence. For a set of eclipsing
OB-systems in the LMC, the observed period-distribution is
different from the theoretical one, and the input orbit
distributions and/or the evolutionary environment in LMC has to be
different compared with the Galaxy. A natural application of these
methods are estimates of the numbers and properties of eclipsing
binaries observed by large-scale surveys like Gaia.
Key words: methods: miscellaneous / binaries: general / binaries: eclipsing / stars: formation / stars: evolution / stars: statistics
© ESO, 2005
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