New Orbital Parameters of 850 Wide Visual Binary Stars and Their Statistical Properties

Abstract Based on positional observations and measurements of radial velocities, the orbits of 850 wide visual binary stars have been determined. The parameters of the log-normal distributions for the histograms of orbital periods, stellar masses, and semimajor axes in astronomical units have been obtained. The eccentricity histogram for binary stars with orbital periods less than 400 yr follows a normal distribution centered at e = 0.545 +/− 0.029. For stars with longer periods, this distribution obeys the law f = 2 e , with accuracy to errors. The mass-to-luminosity relation for stars with well-determined masses is given by: <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>log</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mn>4.33</mml:mn> <mml:mi>log</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.11</mml:mn> </mml:math> , where L ⊙ and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> are the luminosity and mass of the star in units of the solar luminosity and mass, respectively.