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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Although the formation of close binaries has been the subject of numerous investigations in the last 100 years (for a recent review, see Tassoul 1978), we cannot yet claim decisive observational support for any theory, a state of affairs probably reflecting insufficient development of the various theories, rather than a failure to propose the correct mechanism(s). If this is indeed so, we can look forward to significant progress soon, since numerical techniques now allow us - albeit crudely - to follow through to completion binary formation by the two most likely mechanisms, fission and fragmentation. (Herein a binary will be described as having formed by fission if it results from the bifurcation of a rotating protostar as it contracts quasi-statically towards the main sequence and by fragmentation if it results from a rotating protostar's break up into two or more components during, or immediately following, a phase of dynamical collapse).