Participation in leading research on Binary and Multiple Stars developed in the area of current Spanish and Italian Astronomy

Resumo

This PhD Dissertation was carried out by Luca Piccotti in the form of a compendium of publications, and was proposed and directed by Professor José Ángel Docobo Durántez, an international specialist in binary stars, Full Professor of Astronomy at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), and Director of the research group at the Ramón María Aller Astronomical Observatory (OARMA) of the USC. Professor Docobo, during the elaboration of the Master Degree Thesis, suggested the realization of a Doctoral Dissertation and, when he proposed it to me, I did not hesitate to accept it. The transversal approach of this Report, following the main line of research of OARMA since Father Aller introduced this study in Spain, introduced different questions for the research of these systems which are listed in the respective Chapters. A double, or binary, star can be defined as a pair of stars physically associated by mutual gravitational attraction. Because of this fact, each component describes a periodic orbit around the center of mass of the system. This is a fundamental field within Stellar Astronomy with very different lines of investigation from both the astrophysical and the astrodynamic point of view although both are closely related. Research in this field is of great interest in Astronomy for a number of different and interesting reasons but, mainly, it is the principal reference for obtaining the values of individual stellar masses, using their orbits and parallaxes. Furthermore, by studying the motion of such systems, their orbits can be determined. Once known, various physical properties and other basic stellar parameters can be investigated.