The Binary Fraction of Milky Way Field Stars in DESI: Dependence on Chemical Abundance
The study used multi-epoch radial velocity variations from DESI data to find how often stars in the Milky Way are binary systems. The main finding is that this binary fraction primarily increases as metallicity ([Fe/H]) decreases. This dependence on chemical abundance is more significant than Galactic position or other factors, suggesting star formation conditions strongly influence binary system prevalence.