Related papers: Orbit alignment in triple stars
The angle between the rotation and orbital axes of stars in binary systems -- the obliquity -- is an important indicator of how these systems form and evolve but few such measurements exist. We combine the sample of astrometric orbital…
Hierarchical triple stars are ideal laboratories for studying the interplay between orbital dynamics and stellar evolution. Both stellar wind mass loss and three-body dynamics cooperate to destabilise triples, which can lead to a variety of…
Orbits of inner and outer subsystems in 13 triple or higher-order stellar systems are computed or updated using position measurements and, in three cases, radial velocities. The goal is to determine mutual orbital inclinations, period…
Stars in short-period binaries typically have spins that are aligned and synchronized with the orbit of their companion. In triple systems, however, the combination of spin and orbital precession can cause the star's rotation to evolve to a…
The angle between the stellar spin-axis and the orbital plane of a stellar or planetary companion has important implications for the formation and evolution of such systems. A study by Hale (1994) found that binaries with separations $a <…
Multiplicity is a ubiquitous characteristic of massive stars. Multiple systems offer us a unique observational constraint on the formation of high-mass systems. Herschel 36 A is a massive triple system composed of a close binary (Ab1-Ab2)…
We measure the projected angle on the plane of the sky between adjacent symmetry axes of tens of multipolar planetary nebulae and find that the distribution of these misalignment angles implies a random three-dimensional angle distribution…
Physical collisions and close approaches between stars play an important role in the formation of exotic stellar systems. Standard theories suggest that collisions are rare, occurring only via random encounters between stars in dense…
We explore the distribution of position angles (PA) of galaxies in clusters. We selected for study the isolated clusters, since the distribution of the galaxy orientation in clusters with close neighbors could be altered by gravitational…
We determine the character of orbits of stars moving in the meridional plane $(R,z)$ of an axially symmetric time-independent disk galaxy model with a spherical central nucleus. In particular, we try to reveal the influence of the value of…
We investigate to what extent the spin axes of stars in young open clusters are aligned. Assuming that the spin vectors lie uniformly within a conical section, with an opening half-angle between lambda=0 (perfectly aligned) and lambda=90…
Star-planet interactions play, among other things, a crucial role in planetary orbital configurations by circularizing orbits, aligning the star and planet spin and synchronizing stellar rotation with orbital motions. This is especially…
A sample of 392 low-mass hierarchical triple stellar systems within 100 pc resolved by Gaia as distinct sources is defined. Owing to the uniform selection, the sample is ideally suited to study unbiased statistics of wide triples. The…
The spin-orbit alignment of binary stars traces their formation and accretion history. Previous studies of spin-orbit alignment have been limited to small samples, slowly rotating solar-type stars, and/or wide visual binaries that not…
This paper investigates the long-term orbital stability of small bodies near the central binary of the Alpha Centauri system. Test particles on circular orbits are integrated in the field of this binary for 32000 binary periods or…
The angle between the stellar spin and the planetary orbit axes (spin-orbit angle) is supposed to carry valuable information on the initial condition of the planet formation and the subsequent migration history. Indeed current observations…
A widely considered characteristic of extra-solar planetary systems has been a seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stable configurations. Based on a new catalog of extra-solar planets (Butler et al. 2006) and…
One possible diagnostic of planet formation, orbital migration, and tidal evolution is the angle psi between a planet's orbital axis and the spin axis of its parent star. In general, psi cannot be measured, but for transiting planets one…
The obliquities of planet-hosting stars are clues about the formation of planetary systems. Previous observations led to the hypothesis that for close-in giant planets, spin-orbit alignment is enforced by tidal interactions. Here, we…
The secular approximation for the evolution of hierarchical triple configurations has proven to be very useful in many astrophysical contexts, from planetary to triple-star systems. In this approximation the orbits may change shape and…