Letter to the Editor

A relation between the radial velocity dispersion of young clusters and their age

Evidence for hardening as the formation scenario of massive close binaries

¹ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: ramirez@mpia.de
² Astronomical Institute “Anton Pannekoek”, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
³ Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁴ Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Oskar Klein Center, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

Received: 14 October 2020
Accepted: 18 December 2020

Abstract

The majority of massive stars (> 8 M_⊙) in OB associations are found in close binary systems. Nonetheless, the formation mechanism of these close massive binaries is not understood yet. Using literature data, we measured the radial-velocity dispersion (σ_1D) as a proxy for the close binary fraction in ten OB associations in the Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud, spanning an age range from 1 to 6 Myr. We find a positive trend of this dispersion with the cluster’s age, which is consistent with binary hardening. Assuming a universal binary fraction of f_bin = 0.7, we converted the σ_1D behavior to an evolution of the minimum orbital period P_cutoff from ∼9.5 years at 1 Myr to ∼1.4 days for the oldest clusters in our sample at ∼6 Myr. Our results suggest that binaries are formed at larger separations, and they harden in around 1 to 2 Myr to produce the period distribution observed in few million year-old OB binaries. Such an inward migration may either be driven by an interaction with a remnant accretion disk or with other young stellar objects present in the system. Our findings constitute the first empirical evidence in favor of migration as a scenario for the formation of massive close binaries.