Since 2019 I have developed and led a project to study red supergiant stars (RSGs) in binary systems. To this end I have established an international collaboration to exploit space-based ultraviolet observations using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the UVIT/ASTROSAT satellite to determine the multiplicity properties of RSGs and study individual binary systems.
This work started with the study of the binary nature of the RSG population of the Tarantula region as part of the FLAMES VLT Tarantula Survey (VFTS), a multi-epoch study of a small number of RSGs in one of our nearest neighbor galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In this study we no examples of RSGs within binary systems similar to those found in the Galaxy, adding strength to the argument that as a would-be RSG in a close binary system evolves towards the red, interaction between the stars prevents the RSG phase of evolution.