The same, but different: Stochasticity in binary destruction
  Observations of binaries in clusters tend to be of visual binaries with
separations of 10s - 100s au. Such binaries are 'intermediates' and their
destruction or survival depends on the exact details of their individual
dynamical history. We investigate the stochasticity of the destruction of such
binaries and the differences between the initial and processed populations
using N-body simulations. We concentrate on Orion Nebula Cluster-like clusters,
where the observed binary separation distribution ranges from 62 - 620 au.
  We find that, starting from the same initial binary population in
statistically identical clusters, the number of intermediate binaries that are
destroyed after 1 Myr can vary by a factor of >2, and that the resulting
separation distributions can be statistically completely different in initially
substructured clusters. We also find that the mass ratio distributions are
altered (destroying more low mass ratio systems), but not as significantly as
the binary fractions or separation distributions. We conclude that finding very
different intermediate (visual) binary populations in different clusters does
not provide conclusive evidence that the initial populations were different.
