Single-lined Spectroscopic Binary Star Candidates in the RAVE Survey

TL;DR

This study identifies and analyzes single-lined spectroscopic binary star candidates in the RAVE survey, revealing their prevalence, characteristics, and some known binary systems, using repeated spectroscopic observations of a large stellar sample.

Contribution

It presents the first large-scale identification of SB1 candidates in the RAVE survey, providing insights into their distribution, properties, and comparison with existing binary catalogs.

Findings

10-15% of stars with multiple observations are SB1 candidates.

Most SB1 candidates have periods in days to weeks.

Confirmed consistency of radial velocities with known binary orbits.

Abstract

Repeated spectroscopic observations of stars in the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) database are used to identify and examine single-lined binary (SB1) candidates. The RAVE latest internal database (VDR3) includes radial velocities, atmospheric and other parameters for approximately quarter million of different stars with little less than 300,000 observations. In the sample of ~20,000 stars observed more than once, 1333 stars with variable radial velocities were identified. Most of them are believed to be SB1 candidates. The fraction of SB1 candidates among stars with several observations is between 10% and 15% which is the lower limit for binarity among RAVE stars. Due to the distribution of time spans between the re-observation that is biased towards relatively short timescales (days to weeks), the periods of the identified SB1 candidates are most likely in the same range. Because of the RAVE's narrow magnitude range most of the dwarf candidates belong to the thin Galactic disk while the giants are part of the thick disk with distances extending to up to a few kpc. The comparison of the list of SB1 candidates to the VSX catalog of variable stars yielded several pulsating variables among the giant population with the radial velocity variations of up to few tens of km/s. There are 26 matches between the catalog of spectroscopic binary orbits (SB9) and the whole RAVE sample for which the given periastron time and the time of RAVE observation were close enough to yield a reliable comparison. RAVE measurements of radial velocities of known spectroscopic binaries are consistent with their published radial velocity curves.