Binary--Single-Star Scattering. VI. Automatic Determination of Interaction Cross Sections
Abstract
Scattering encounters between binaries and single stars play a central role in determining the dynamical evolution of a star cluster. In addition, three-body scattering can give rise to many interesting exceptional objects: merging can produce blue stragglers; exchange can produce binaries containing millisecond pulsars in environments quite different from those in which the pulsars were spun up; various types of X-ray binaries can be formed, and their activity can be either shut off or triggered as a result of triple interactions.
To date, all published results on three-body scattering have relied on human guidance for determining the correct parameter range for the envelope within which to perform Monte Carlo scattering experiments. In this paper we describe the first fully automatic determination of cross sections and reaction rates for binary-single-star scattering. Rather than relying on human inspection of pilot calculations, we have constructed a feedback system that ensures near-optimal coverage of parameter space while guaranteeing completeness. We illustrate our approach with a particular example, in which we describe the results of a three-body encounter between three main-sequence stars of different masses. We provide total cross sections, as well as branching ratios for the various different types of two-body mergers, three body mergers, and exchanges, both nonresonant and resonant. The companion paper in this series, Paper VII, provides a full survey of unequal-mass three-body scattering for hard binaries in the point-mass limit.- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- August 1996
- DOI:
- 10.1086/177610
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9604015
- Bibcode:
- 1996ApJ...467..348M
- Keywords:
-
- STARS: BINARIES: GENERAL;
- CELESTIAL MECHANICS;
- STELLAR DYNAMICS;
- STARS: PULSARS: GENERAL;
- STARS: EVOLUTION;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 20 pages, TeX + 5 ps-figures, to appear in ApJ