Binary Capture Rates for Massive Protostars

Abstract

The high multiplicity of massive stars in dense, young clusters isestablished early in their evolution. The mechanism behind this remainsunresolved. Recent results suggest that massive protostars may capturecompanions through disk interactions with much higher efficiency thantheir solar mass counterparts. However, this conclusion is based onanalytic determinations of capture rates and estimates of the robustnessof the resulting binaries. We present the results of coupled n-body andSPH simulations of star-disk encounters to further test the idea thatdisk-captured binaries contribute to the observed multiplicity ofmassive stars.