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Recent observations of binary stars in the Galactic field show that thebinary fraction and the mean orbital separation both decrease as a function ofdecreasing primary mass. We present $N$-body simulations of the effects ofdynamical evolution in star-forming regions on primordial binary stars todetermine whether these observed trends can be explained by the dynamicalprocessing of a common binary population. We find that dynamical processing ofa binary population with an initial binary fraction of unity and an initialexcess of intermediate/wide separation (100 - 10$^4$ au) binaries does notreproduce the observed properties in the field, even in initially dense ($\sim10^3$M$_\odot$ pc$^{-3}$) star-forming regions.  If instead we adopt a field-like population as the initial conditions, mostbrown dwarf and M-dwarf binaries are dynamically hard and their overallfractions and separation distributions are unaffected by dynamical evolution.G-dwarf and A-star binaries in the field are dynamically intermediate in oursimulated dense regions and dynamical processing does destroy some systems withseparations $>$100 au. However, the formation of wide binaries through thedissolution of supervirial regions is a strong function of primary mass, andthe wide G-dwarf and A-star binaries that are destroyed by dynamical evolutionin subvirial regions are replenished by the formation of binaries insupervirial regions. We therefore suggest that the binary population in thefield is $indicative$ of the primordial binary population in star-formingregions, at least for systems with primary masses in the range 0.02 -3.0M$_\odot$.

Binaries in the field: fossils of the star formation process?