Dancing with the stars: a review on stellar multiplicity

TL;DR

This review discusses the significance of stellar multiplicity, highlights major surveys that identify binary stars, and presents the Gaia Non-Single Star catalogue as the largest homogeneous binary star database to date.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the importance of stellar multiples and introduces the Gaia Non-Single Star catalogue as a key resource.

Findings

Large surveys have revolutionized binary star detection.

The Gaia Non-Single Star catalogue is the largest homogeneous binary star database.

Stellar multiplicity impacts various astrophysical phenomena.

Abstract

Stars like company. They are mostly formed in clusters and their lives are often altered by the presence of one or more companions. Interaction processes between components may lead to complex outcomes like Algols, blue stragglers, chemically altered stars, type Ia supernovae, as well as progenitors of gravitational wave sources, to cite a few. Observational astronomy has entered the era of big data, and thanks to large surveys like spatial missions Kepler, TESS, Gaia, and ground-based spectroscopic surveys like RAVE, Gaia-ESO, APOGEE, LAMOST, GALAH (to name a few) the field is going through a true revolution, as illustrated by the recent detection of stellar black holes and neutron stars as companions of massive but also low-mass stars. In this review, I will present why it is important to care about stellar multiples, what are the main large surveys in which many binaries are harvested, and finally present some features related to the largest catalogue of astrometric, spectroscopic and eclipsing binaries provided by the Non-Single Star catalogue of Gaia, which is, to date, the largest homogeneous catalogue of stellar binaries.