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Fission and the Origin of Binary Stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Jeremiah P. Ostriker
Jeremiah P. Ostriker*
Affiliation:
Princeton University Observatory, U.S.A.

Abstract

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Brief reviews of the classical ‘angular momentum problem’ and the statistics of upper-main-sequence binaries are presented as background for the suggestion that the close, early-type, binaries are produced by fission of rapidly rotating protostars.

Next, theoretical sequences of contracting, rotating stars are described. Recent work demonstrates that the zero-viscosity, polytropic sequences, have essentially the same properties as the McLaurin sequence. Thus, fission is possible for centrally condensed stars. Observations of close early-type binaries are compared with theoretical predictions for the minimum angular momentum in binary systems of given total mass; the agreement is excellent.

Finally, the existing theoretical objections to the fission hypothesis for the origin of binary stars are reviewed, and it is concluded that, although fission remains unproven, there are now no strong theoretical arguments against the process, and there is considerable observational support for its existence.

Type
Part III / Stellar Rotation in Binaries, Clusters, and Special Objects. Statistics of Stellar Rotation
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 4: Stellar Rotation , 1970 , pp. 147 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1970

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