Inclusion of binaries in evolutionary population synthesis

Using evolutionary population synthesis we present integrated colours, integrated spectral energy distributions and absorption‐line indices defined by the Lick Observatory image dissector scanner (referred to as the Lick/IDS) system, for an extensive set of instantaneous‐burst binary stellar populations with and without binary interactions. The ages of the populations are in the range 1–15 Gyr and the metallicities are in the range 0.0001–0.03. By comparing the results for populations with and without binary interactions we show that the inclusion of binary interactions makes the integrated U – B , B – V , V – R and R – I colours and all Lick/IDS spectral absorption indices (except for H β ) substantially smaller. In other words, binary evolution makes a population appear bluer. This effect raises the derived age and metallicity of the population. We calculate several sets of additional solar‐metallicity binary stellar populations to explore the influence of the binary evolution algorithm input parameters (the common‐envelope ejection efficiency and the stellar wind mass‐loss rate) on the resulting integrated colours. We also look at the dependence on the choice of distribution functions used to generate the initial binary population. The results show that variations in the choice of input model parameters and distributions can significantly affect the results. However, comparing the discrepancies that exist between the colours of various models, we find that the differences are less than those produced between the models with and those without binary interactions. Therefore it is very necessary to consider binary interactions in order to draw accurate conclusions from evolutionary population synthesis work.