Dark matter in dwarf galaxies: Correcting inferred galaxy masses for the orbital motion of binary stars

We introduce a Bayesian methodology for determining the velocity dispersions of dwarf galaxies which takes into account both binarity and contamination by nonmember stars in a self-consistent way. This method can be readily extended to determine masses and related quantities such as the dark matter annihilation cross-section of dwarf galaxies. In addition we show that measured velocity dispersions of dwarf spheroidal galaxies from about 4 to 10 km/s are unlikely to be inflated by more than 30% due to the orbital motion of binary stars, and demonstrate that the intrinsic velocity dispersions can be determined to within a few percent accuracy using multi-epoch observations with 1-2 years as the optimal time interval. This methodology also constrains properties of binary populations (e.g. binary fraction, period distribution) from multi-epoch velocity measurements, and can be applied to both dwarf galaxies as well as star clusters.