PPT Slide
Star Formation June 1999, Nagoya
Binary Properties of Dynamical Decaying
Michael F. Sterzik, European Southern Observatory, Chile
Richard H. Durisen, Indiana University, U.S.A.
We investigate the dynamic decay of nonhierarchical young stellar multiples
by direct numerical integrations. We statistically compare the properties of
remnant decay product resulting from two different initial mass functions (IMF).
One IMF extends its lower mass cutoff into the brown dwarf regime. We show
that the final binary properties are rather robust with respect to variations of the
initial system configurations, and that some characteristic trends in the observed
binary frequencies, mass ratio distributions, and binary separation distributions
can be found in the end-states of decaying few-body clusters. This supports the
idea that few-body clusters seems to form a normal, intermediate stage in the
history of low-mass star formation.