Early B-type stars, are the little brothers of the brighter, hotter and more massive O type stars, which are nearly always found in close binary systems. How often are the little brothers found in binary systems? Are the binary systems different than in the case of O type stars? Those are the questions addressed in this paper.
Using the Very Large Telescope in Chili nearly a thousand stars were observed as part of the Tarantula Survey of Massive stars. Dunstall et al. investigated 408 B stars in the sample, the larges homogeneous survey to date. They find that a quarter of these have companions. Taking into account the companions missed they derive that 60% of the B type stars have a companion, slightly less but similar to what was found for the O stars. The B type stars appear to have a less strong preference for extremely close systems.
“The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula SurveyX XII. Multiplicity properties of the B-type stars” by
P. R. Dunstall, P. L. Dufton, H. Sana, C. J. Evans, I. D. Howarth, S. Simon-Dıaz
S. E. de Mink, N. Langer, J. Maız Apellaniz, W. D. Taylor, accepted for publiacation in A&A.
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