The Closest M-Dwarf Quadruple System to the Sun
Abstract
Although the processes involved in single star formation have a wide variety of observational and theoretical constraints (e.g., McKee & Ostriker 2007), the complex physics involved in the formation of binary and especially multiple star systems is much less understood (e.g., Halbwachs et al. 2003; Tokovinin 2008; Duchene & Kraus 2013). Prompt fragmentation of a collapsing prestellar core is favored as setting the initial conditions for multiple star systems (e.g., Tohline 2002), though how this depends upon the initial conditions of the cloud core (e.g., metallicity, mass, etc.) is not well understood. Once initial fragments form, subsequent fragmentation (possibly within a disk), accretion from the remnant cloud core, N-body dynamics, and possibly orbital migration have been proposed to play competing roles in setting the final properties of multiple star systems (e.g., Bate 2000; Bonnell 2001; Delgado-Donate et al.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 24, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA613825
Entities
People
- A. R. Riedel
- Cassy L. Davison
- J. G. Winters
- J. I. Bailey Iii
- J. P. Subasavage
- J. R. Cantrell
- R. J. White
- S. N. Quinn
- T. J. Henry
- W. C. Jao
Organizations
- United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station