Massive, wide binaries as tracers of massive star formation
  Massive stars can be found in wide (hundreds to thousands AU) binaries with
other massive stars. We use $N$-body simulations to show that any bound cluster
should always have approximately one massive wide binary: one will probably
form if none are present initially; and probably only one will survive if more
than one are present initially. Therefore any region that contains many massive
wide binaries must have been composed of many individual subregions.
Observations of Cyg OB2 show that the massive wide binary fraction is at least
a half (38/74) which suggests that Cyg OB2 had at least 30 distinct massive
star formation sites. This is further evidence that Cyg OB2 has always been a
large, low-density association. That Cyg OB2 has a normal high-mass IMF for its
total mass suggests that however massive stars form they 'randomly sample' the
IMF (as the massive stars did not 'know' about each other).
