Binaries among debris disk stars

We collected published information and performed adaptive optics observations at Lick Observatory to determine if these debris disks are associated with binary or multiple stars. We discovered a previously unknown M-star companion to HD 1051 at a projected separation of 628 AU.

We found that 25%+/-4% of our debris disk systems are binary or triple star systems, substantially less than the expected ~50%. The period distribution for these suggests a relative lack of systems with 1-100 AU separations. Only a few systems have blackbody disk radii comparable to the binary/triple separation.