Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2001

Published In

Formation Of Binary Stars: Proceedings Of The 200th Symposium Of The International Astronomical Union

Series Title

IAU Symposia Proceedings

Abstract

Observations at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths are sensitive to the total mass of circumstellar and circumbinary dust in a multiple system, and in some cases single-dish observations can help constrain the location of disk material in spite of their lack of spatial resolution. Young binary stars show a great diversity of disk properties, with a large part of the variation accounted for by binary separation. Many of the closest binaries (those with separations a less than a few AU) harbor massive circumbinary disks. Binaries with a greater than or equal to 100 AU tend to have massive circumstellar disks. In both cases, the properties of these disks (as deduced from millimeter and infrared fluxes) are indistinguishable from those around single stars. In the intermediate separation range (10 less than or equal to a less than or equal to 100), however, while disks do exist in most binaries, they are strongly limited by the presence of stellar companion, with inferred dust masses of order an Earth mass. While comparison of sample properties is secure, calculating masses in individual systems is limited by the uncertainty in dust opacity and surface density distribution laws (as in single stars), with the additional complication of the uncertain disk geometry in the system.

Published By

Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Editor(s)

H. Zinnecker and R. Mathieu

Conference

IAU Symposium 200: Formation Of Binary Stars

Conference Dates

April 10-15, 2000

Conference Location

Potsdam, Germany

Comments

This work is freely available courtesy of Kluwer.
This work is a preprint retrieved from the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System at 2001IAUS..200..285J.

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