Catalogue of Spectroscopic Binary Orbits

The catalogue of spectroscopic binary orbits (SB) is a compilation of orbital data for spectroscopic binary stars which have been produced since 1969 by Alan Henry Batten of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory^[1] and various collaborators.^[2] At the 24th International Astronomical Union general assembly, in 2000, a working group was established to take responsibility for maintenance of the catalogue, and to take it from a paper based system to an online database.^[3] The 9th catalogue was published in 2004.^[2]

As of 7 August 2009, the catalogue database contained information on over 2940 binary systems,^[4] increasing to 3722 in March 2019. The main components of the current SB9 catalogue, as a work in progress, can be downloaded in gzipped tar ball format.^[5]

Applications

The catalogue is used for a variety of purposes:

• Completeness assessments and statistical analysis
• Generation of H–R diagrams and definition of shortest period
• Computation of period & eccentricity relationships

References

1. The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System Alan H Batten entry Retrieved February 2015
2. Pourbaix, D.; Tokovinin, A. A.; Batten, A. H.; Fekel, F. C.; Hartkopf, W. I.; Levato, H.; Morrell, N. I.; Torres, G.; Udry, S. (2004). "SB9: The ninth catalogue of spectroscopic binary orbits". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 424 (2): 727–732. arXiv:astro-ph/0406573. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20041213. ISSN 0004-6361.
3. IAU official website Introduction to SB9 version of the catalogue. 16 October 2003
4. Corbett, I. F., ed. (2010). Proceedings of the Twenty Seventh General Assembly Rio de Janeiro 2009: Transactions of the International Astronomical Union XXVIIB. Cambridge University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-521-76831-3.
5. Current SB9 database, 3722 entries for version:2019-03-04 10:04:25.990702480 +0100