Binary properties of CH and CEMP stars

We suggest that they must be considered as one and the same family and that their different names only stem from historical reasons. Indeed, these two families have as well very similar mass-function distributions, corresponding to companions with masses in the range 0.5-0.7M_{sun}_, indicative of white-dwarf companions, adopting 0.8-0.9M_{sun}_ for the primary component. This result confirms that CH and CEMP-s stars obey the same mass-transfer scenario as their higher-metallicity analogues, barium stars.

The P-e diagrams of barium, CH, and CEMP-s stars are indeed very similar. They reveal two different groups of systems: one with short orbital periods (P<1000d) and mostly circular or almost circular orbits, and another with longer period and eccentric (e>0.1) orbits. These two groups either trace different evolutionary channels during the mass-transfer episode responsible for the chemical peculiarities of the Ba/CH/CEMP-s stars, or result from the operation of tidal circularisation in a more recent past, when the current giant star was ascending the first giant branch.