  Pre-main sequence and main-sequence binary systems are observed to have
periods, P, ranging from one day to 10^(10) days and eccentricities, e, ranging
from 0 to 1. We pose the problem if stellar-dynamical interactions in very
young and compact star clusters may broaden an initially narrow period
distribution to the observed width. N-body computations of extremely compact
clusters containing 100 and 1000 stars initially in equilibrium and in cold
collapse are preformed. In all cases the assumed initial period distribution is
uniform in the narrow range 4.5 < log10(P) < 5.5 (P in days) which straddles
the maximum in the observed period distribution of late-type Galactic-field
dwarf systems. None of the models lead to the necessary broadening of the
period distribution, despite our adopted extreme conditions that favour
binary--binary interactions. Stellar-dynamical interactions in embedded
clusters thus cannot, under any circumstances, widen the period distribution
sufficiently. The wide range of orbital periods of very young and old binary
systems is therefore a result of cloud fragmentation and immediate subsequent
magneto-hydrodynamical processes operating within the multiple proto-stellar
system.
