Astrometric Orbits for Hipparcos Stochastic Binaries
Taking advantage of an improved genetic optimization algorithm for fitting unconstrained Kepler orbits to the Hipparcos intermediate astrometric data, we obtain additional orbital solutions for 81 Hipparcos stars with previous stochastic (failed) solutions. The sample includes astrophysically interesting objects, including the old disk wide binary HIP 754, the nearby AGB star HIP 34922 (L2 Pup), and the nearby M2 dwarf HIP 5496 (GJ 54, at 8 pc from the Sun) which has a resolved M dwarf companion.