Binarity+and+Stellar+Evolution

Theories of Stellar Evolution represent an extremely powerful, and for the most part apparently very successful, tool for understanding in a statistical way the progression of a star through its lifetime as a fairly compact entity of incandescent gas. That success has led to Stellar Evolution theory becoming a crutch when faced with objects whose provenance or current state are in some way puzzling. The validity of the theory is best checked by reference to observed long-term variability, and to binary systems for which the component parameters have been determined with high precision, but it can(and needs to be) honed through challenges which oddball stars also present from time to time.

Unfortunately, not all observationally-determined stellar parameters for the same reference systems agree to within the precisions claimed by their various authors, and the workshop needs to present such cases to the theoreticians who are present. Is it a matter of choices of data, of new data, or of methods of data reduction? Those questions reflect the Symposium's efforts to list the kinds of collaborations which could enable better science to emerge from the field of binary stars. In addition, the workshop needs to be told which oddballs are still challenging it, and participants are invited to make lists of stars (with details) that fall into this category.