Abstract
Young binary systems offer a unique opportunity to study the fragility of circumstellar disks in dynamically tumultuous environments. Because the two stars likely formed together, with the same composition, in the same environment, and at the same time, we expect their disks to be co-eval. Membership in a binary system also dictates the outer disk radius due to tidal truncation by the companion and therefore the disks in the closest young binaries have determinate sizes. Due to this dynamical complexity, it is perhaps unsurprising that young binary stars are smaller, less massive and shorter lived than disks around more widely spaced or single stars. Despite these seemingly bleak prospects for disk longevity and potential planet formation, in some cases the circumstellar disks in close binary systems persist: the survival of a circumstellar disk is not regulated entirely by membership in a close binary; other processes and influences are at work. By studying the stellar, orbital, and disk properties in young binaries, we can use these nominally coeval systems to explore these factors, interpreting the evolution of all primordial disks through this lens.
