Mass determination of astrometric binaries with Hipparcos. II. Selection of candidates and results

In a previous paper (\cite{Mar97}) we have shown that for double stars with orbital periods smaller than about 25 years, it was possible to determine from the Hipparcos data, the mass ratio B of the components or the difference between the mass and intensity ratios, beta -B, provided the orbital elements of the relative orbit are available. From an extensive literature search we have selected 145 potential systems, of which 46 yielded eventually a satisfactory solution. For eight systems with the largest separations, the peculiarities of the natural direction associated to the Hipparcos observations, the 'hippacentre', have been fully exploited to derive the mass ratio of the components without any additional assumption. For the remaining 38, the derivation of the mass ratio was possible only by taking the magnitude difference between the two components from other sources. The parallax determined simultaneously, is then used to produce the individual masses of the components. The astrophysical relevance of the results is discussed and when possible (17 systems) the masses are compared to ground-based values.