The binary companion mass ratio distribution: an imprint of the star formation process?

We explore the effects of dynamical evolution in dense clusters on the companion mass ratio distribution (CMRD) of binary stars. Binary systems are destroyed by interactions with other stars in the cluster, lowering the total binary fraction and significantly altering the initial semimajor axis distribution. However, the shape of the CMRD is unaffected by dynamics; an equal number of systems with high mass ratios are destroyed compared to systems with low mass ratios. We might expect a weak dependence of the survivability of a binary on its mass ratio because its binding energy is proportional to both the primary and secondary mass components of the system. However, binaries are broken up by interactions in which the perturbing star has a significantly higher energy (by a factor of ≳10, depending on the particular binary properties) than the binding energy of the binary, or through multiple interactions in the cluster. We therefore suggest that the shape of the observed binary CMRD is an outcome of the star formation process and should be measured in preference to the distributions of orbital parameters, such as the semimajor axis distribution.