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We present high angular resolution 1.3 mm and 850 um dust continuum data obtained with the Submillimeter Array toward 33 Class 0 protostars in nearby clouds (distance < 500 pc), which represents so far the largest survey toward protostellar binary/multiple systems. The median angular resolution in the survey is 2.5 arcsec, while the median linear resolution is approximately 600 AU. Compact dust continuum emission is observed from all sources in the sample. Twenty-one sources in the sample show signatures of binarity/multiplicity, with separations ranging from 50 to 5000 AU. The numbers of singles, binaries, triples, and quadruples in the sample are 12, 14, 5, and 2, respectively. The derived multiplicity frequency (MF) and companion star fraction (CSF) for Class 0 protostars are 0.64+/-0.08 and 0.91+/-0.05, respectively, with no correction for completeness. The derived MF and CSF in this survey are approximately two times higher than the values found in the binary surveys toward Class I YSOs, and approximately three (for MF) and four (for CSF) times larger than the values found among MS stars, with a similar range of separations. Furthermore, the observed fraction of high order multiple systems to binary systems in Class 0 protostars (0.50+/-0.09) is also larger than the fractions found in Class I YSOs (0.31+/-0.07) and MS stars ( < 0.2). These results suggest that binary properties evolve as protostars evolve, as predicted by numerical simulations. The distribution of separations for Class 0 protostellar binary systems shows a general trend in which companion star fraction increases with decreasing companion separation. We find that 67%+/-8% of the protobinary systems have circumstellar mass ratios below 0.5, implying that unequal-mass systems are preferred in the process of binary star formation. We suggest an empirical sequential fragmentation picture for binary star formation.

We present a spectroscopic sample of 747 detached close binary systems from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Fourth Data Release. The majority of these binaries consist of a white dwarf primary and a low-mass secondary (typically M dwarf) companion. We have determined the temperature and gravity for 496 of the white dwarf primaries and the spectral type and magnetic activity properties for 661 of the low-mass secondaries. We have estimated the distances for each of the white dwarf main-sequence star binaries and used white dwarf evolutionary grids to establish the age of each binary system from the white dwarf cooling times. With respect to a spectroscopically identified sample of 8000 isolated M dwarf stars in the SDSS, the M dwarf secondaries show enhanced activity with a higher active fraction at a given spectral type. The white dwarf temperatures and gravities are similar to the distribution of 1900 DA white dwarfs from the SDSS. The ages of the binaries in this study range from 0.5 Myr to nearly 3 Gyr (average age 0.20 Gyr).

We undertake a comparison of observed Algol-type binaries with a library of computed Case A binary evolution tracks. The library consists of 5500 binary tracks with various values of initial primary mass M_{10}, mass ratio q_0, and period P_0, designed to sample the phase-space of Case A binaries in the range -0.10 < log M_{10} < 1.7. Each binary is evolved using a standard code with the assumption that both total mass and orbital angular momentum are conserved. This code follows the evolution of both stars until the point where contact or reverse mass transfer occurs. The resulting binary tracks show a rich variety of behavior which we sort into several subclasses of Case A and Case B. We present the results of this classification, the final mass ratio and the fraction of time spent in Roche Lobe overflow for each binary system. The conservative assumption under which we created this library is expected to hold for a broad range of binaries, where both components have spectra in the range G0 to B1 and luminosity class III - V. We gather a list of relatively well-determined observed hot Algol-type binaries meeting this criterion, as well as a list of cooler Algol-type binaries where we expect significant dynamo-driven mass loss and angular momentum loss. We fit each observed binary to our library of tracks using a chi^2-minimizing procedure. We find that the hot Algols display overall acceptable chi^2, confirming the conservative assumption, while the cool Algols show much less acceptable chi^2 suggesting the need for more free parameters, such as mass and angular momentum loss.