Higher-order effects in the dynamics of hierarchical triple systems. III. Astrophysical implications of second-order and dotriacontapole terms

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Autores principales: Conway, Landen, Will, Clifford M.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Conway, Landen
Will, Clifford M.
author_facet Conway, Landen
Will, Clifford M.
contents We study the long-term evolution of selected hierarchical triple systems in Newtonian gravity. We employ analytic equations derived in Paper II for the evolution of orbit-averaged orbital elements for both inner and outer orbits, which include two classes of contributions. One class consists of linear-order contributions, including quadrupole, octupole, hexadecapole and dotriacontapole orders, the latter scaling as $ε^6$, where $ε= a/A$, the ratio of the semimajor axes of the inner and outer orbits. The second class consists of contributions at {\em second} order in the fundamental perturbation parameter; they contribute at orders $ε^{9/2}$, $ε^{5}$, $ε^{11/2}$ and $ε^{6}$. For well studied triples such as star-planet systems perturbed by a low-mass third body (``hot Jupiters''), second-order and dotriacontapole (SOD) effects induce only small corrections. For stellar-mass binaries orbiting supermassive black holes, SOD corrections can suppress orbital flips that are generated by purely first-order effects. Planets orbiting binary star systems are susceptible to significant variations in the planetary semimajor axis, an effect that does not occur at first perturbative order. SOD effects in triple black hole systems can induce migrations of the eccentricity to significantly larger values than predicted by first-order perturbations, with implications for the gravitational-wave induced inspiral of the inner binary. We also show that in most cases, evolutions using our SOD equations are in better agreement with those from direct integration of the N-body equations of motion than those from first-order perturbations through hexadecapole order.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_11187
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Higher-order effects in the dynamics of hierarchical triple systems. III. Astrophysical implications of second-order and dotriacontapole terms
Conway, Landen
Will, Clifford M.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We study the long-term evolution of selected hierarchical triple systems in Newtonian gravity. We employ analytic equations derived in Paper II for the evolution of orbit-averaged orbital elements for both inner and outer orbits, which include two classes of contributions. One class consists of linear-order contributions, including quadrupole, octupole, hexadecapole and dotriacontapole orders, the latter scaling as $ε^6$, where $ε= a/A$, the ratio of the semimajor axes of the inner and outer orbits. The second class consists of contributions at {\em second} order in the fundamental perturbation parameter; they contribute at orders $ε^{9/2}$, $ε^{5}$, $ε^{11/2}$ and $ε^{6}$. For well studied triples such as star-planet systems perturbed by a low-mass third body (``hot Jupiters''), second-order and dotriacontapole (SOD) effects induce only small corrections. For stellar-mass binaries orbiting supermassive black holes, SOD corrections can suppress orbital flips that are generated by purely first-order effects. Planets orbiting binary star systems are susceptible to significant variations in the planetary semimajor axis, an effect that does not occur at first perturbative order. SOD effects in triple black hole systems can induce migrations of the eccentricity to significantly larger values than predicted by first-order perturbations, with implications for the gravitational-wave induced inspiral of the inner binary. We also show that in most cases, evolutions using our SOD equations are in better agreement with those from direct integration of the N-body equations of motion than those from first-order perturbations through hexadecapole order.
title Higher-order effects in the dynamics of hierarchical triple systems. III. Astrophysical implications of second-order and dotriacontapole terms
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11187