Binary formation through gas-assisted capture and the implications for stellar, planetary and compact-object evolution

Understand

Binary systems are ubiquitous and their formation requires two-body interaction and dissipation.

• In gaseous media, interactions between two initially unbound objects could result in gas-assisted binary formation, induced by a loss of kinetic energy to the ambient gas medium.
• Here we derive analytically the criteria for gas-assisted binary capture through gas dynamical friction dissipation.
• We validate them with few-body simulations and explore this process in different gas-rich environments: gas-embedded star-forming regions (SFR), gas-enriched globular clusters, AGN disks and protoplanetary-disks.