Abstract

The recent release of Gaia single-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB1) surpasses any prior binary samples by almost two orders of magnitude, offering unprecedented depth and breadth in data. In my talk, I will delve into the latest insights on binary stars’ formation and evolution, drawing on the Gaia SB1 catalogue data. I will introduce the method used to validate the SB1 orbits and how it was exploited to examine tidal circularization processes in main-sequence stars. Previous studies pointed out that many observed samples of short-period binaries display a cut-off period, Pcut, such that almost all binaries with periods shorter than Pcut have circular orbits. This feature is probably due to long-term circularization processes induced by tidal interaction between the two stars of each binary. Using the Gaia MS spectroscopic orbits sample, we have found that the Pcut does not depend on the stellar age but varies with stellar temperature. If indeed true, this has far-reaching implications for binary and exoplanet circularization, synchronization, and alignment theory.