David Hubber (Cardiff University): Numerical Simulations of Binary Star Formation

Binary star formation is the dominant mode of star formation, in contrast to the traditional picture of single star formation. The statistics of binary stars can provide an important constraint on star formation models. I will discuss the use of two numerical techniques to probe binary star formation models. First, N-body simulations can be used to model both small-N (N<7) clusters of protostars and larger clusters (N>100) in order to establish which initial conditions can best explain the observed binary statistics. Second, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics can be used to model earlier stages of star formation, and in particular investigate the link between the properties of prestellar cores and binary stars. I will also discuss several issues and recent advancements in SPH with regards to simulations of star formation.