HST Fine Guidance Sensors Survey For Binaries Among The Massive Stars

We present the results of an all sky survey for binary systems among the massive stars that we made with the HST Fine Guidance Sensors. The sample of 225 stars is comprised mainly of Galactic O- and B-type stars and Luminous Blue Variables, plus a few luminous stars in the LMC. The FGS TRANS mode observations are sensitive to detection of companions with an angular separation of 0.01–1 arcsec and brighter than △m = 5 mag. The FGS observations resolved 52 binary and 6 triple star systems and detected partially resolved binaries in 7 additional targets, yielding a companion detection frequency of 29%. We also gathered literature results on the numbers of close spectroscopic binaries and wider astrometric binaries among the sample. These results confirm the high multiplicity fraction. The period distribution is essentially flat in increments of log P, although there remains an observational gap in detections for periods of years and decades