Binary stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster

• Published in: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2006-11, Vol.458 (2), p.461-476
• Main Authors: Köhler, R., Petr-Gotzens, M. G., McCaughrean, M. J., Bouvier, J., Duchêne, G., Quirrenbach, A., Zinnecker, H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; binaries: visual; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; infrared: stars; stars: pre-main-sequence; surveys; techniques: high angular resolution
• ISSN: 0004-6361; 1432-0746; 1432-0756
• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20054561

We report on a high-spatial-resolution survey for binary stars in the periphery of the Orion Nebula Cluster, at 5–15 arcmin (0.65–2 pc) from the cluster center. We observed 228 stars with adaptive optics systems, in order to find companions at separations of $0\farcs13$–$1\farcs12$ (60–500 AU), and detected 13 new binaries. Combined with the results of Petr (1998), we have a sample of 275 objects, about half of which have masses from the literature and high probabilities to be cluster members. We used an improved method to derive the completeness limits of the observations, which takes into account the elongated point spread function of stars at relatively large distances from the adaptive optics guide star. The multiplicity of stars with masses ${>}2\,M_{\odot}$ is found to be significantly larger than that of low-mass stars. The companion star frequency of low-mass stars is comparable to that of main-sequence M-dwarfs, less than half that of solar-type main-sequence stars, and 3.5 to 5 times lower than in the Taurus-Auriga and Scorpius-Centaurus star-forming regions. We find the binary frequency of low-mass stars in the periphery of the cluster to be the same or only slightly higher than for stars in the cluster core (