GaiaData Release 3

Abstract

Context. The Gaia DR3 Catalogue contains for the first time about eight hundred thousand solutions with either orbital elements or trend parameters for astrometric, spectroscopic and eclipsing binaries, and combinations of them. Aims. This paper aims to illustrate the huge potential of this large non-single star catalogue. Methods. Using the orbital solutions together with models of the binaries, a catalogue of tens of thousands of stellar masses, or lower limits, partly together with consistent flux ratios, has been built. Properties concerning the completeness of the binary catalogues are discussed, statistical features of the orbital elements are explained and a comparison with other catalogues is performed. Results. Illustrative applications are proposed for binaries across the H-R diagram. The binarity is studied in the RGB/AGB and a search for genuine SB1 among long-period variables is performed. The discovery of new EL CVn systems illustrates the potential of combining variability and binarity catalogues. Potential compact object companions are presented, mainly white dwarf companions or double degenerates, but one candidate neutron star is also presented. Towards the bottom of the main sequence, the orbits of previously-suspected binary ultracool dwarfs are determined and new candidate binaries are discovered. The long awaited contribution of Gaia to the analysis of the substellar regime shows the brown dwarf desert around solar-type stars using true, rather than minimum, masses, and provides new important constraints on the occurrence rates of substellar companions to M dwarfs. Several dozen new exoplanets are proposed, including two with validated orbital solutions and one super-Jupiter orbiting a white dwarf, all being candidates requiring confirmation. Beside binarity, higher order multiple systems are also found. Conclusions. By increasing by more than one order of magnitude the number of known binary orbits, Gaia DR3 will provide, beside a rich reservoir of dynamical masses, an important contribution to the analysis of stellar multiplicity.

A Neptune-mass exoplanet in close orbit around a very low-mass star challenges formation models

“…The Gaia renormalized unit-weight error (RUWE) parameter accounts for the color-dependent systematic issues and has been shown to be a better indicator of a companion object than is the astrometric excess ( 34 ). LHS 3154’s RUWE value of 1.12 ( 33 ) is consistent with a single star. Even so, if we assume that all of the observed excess astrometric noise is due to a planet on a 3.7-day orbit, and assuming a single-star astrometric solution ( 36 ), we obtain a 3σ mass limit of <32 M jup .…”

“…A sufficiently massive companion would induce detectable astrometric motion, which would appear as excess astrometric noise in the Gaia data ( 32 ). For LHS 3154, the Gaia Data Release 3 ( 33 ) catalog reported an excess astrometric noise of 316 micro–arc sec with a significance of 27.7σ. However, the data release does not specify the time scale of the astrometric variability, making it impossible to determine whether it is from the 3.7-day planet or an additional long-period companion.…”

White Dwarfs Revealed in Gaia’s Candidate Compact Object Binaries

“…We provide astronomical input to the VOSA utility while fitting the SED of each source. For example, we adopt the interstellar extinction values listed in the GALEX catalog (A v ; Schlegel et al 1998), 2 the Gaia-estimated parallax for each source (Arenou et al 2023), and use bounds around the Gaia-estimated photometric metallicity (Vallenari et al 2023). Figure 2 shows source 2033+0758 as an example where the observed SED can be fitted with a single-component MS star.…”

“…In this context, the sources identified by Andrews et al (2022, ATF22 hereafter) and Shahaf et al ( 2023, SHA23, hereafter) as candidate BH, NS, or WD binaries from the nonsingle star (NSS) catalog (Arenou et al 2023) of Gaia's third data release (DR3) provide a really exciting group for further investigation and characterization. Interestingly, these are not the only candidates for DR-LC binaries identified from Gaia DRs.…”

Light curve modeling of the two short period eclipsing binaries ATO J009.3383 + 34.2329 and CRTS J004004.7 + 385531

“…In addition to the O'Connell effect, the characterization of these systems includes phenomena such as thermal relaxation oscillation (TRO) [7] and orbital period variations (e.g., [8]), underscoring the significance of contact binaries in the study of eclipsing binary formation and evolution. Despite their detection in surveys like ZTF [9] and GAIA [10], the number of thoroughly analysed systems remains small compared to what is detected by these surveys. To provide a broader context, many studies have focused on short-period binary systems (P 0.3 days), revealing insights into their intricate dynamics and evolution (e.g., [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]).…”