Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-42/3/i/solution

Condition on the common age of the coeval binary population. Each component is a red giant with conditional probability , independently of the other component at that age. The conditional probability of at least one giant is . Integrating over the uniform age distribution gives
Thus the fraction is , just below . The subtracted term removes the systems counted twice because both components are red giants. Using the square of the marginal giant fraction would incorrectly ignore their shared age.

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