A first-order dynamical model of hierarchical triple stars and its application

TL;DR

This paper implements Marchal's first-order analytical solution to model hierarchical triple stars, demonstrating improved accuracy over classical models in fitting observational data and predicting stellar positions.

Contribution

It introduces a first-order dynamical model for hierarchical triple stars and applies it to real data, showing its advantages over traditional zeroth-order models.

Findings

First-order model fits observational data better.

Improved prediction of stellar positions.

More efficient application to real triple star systems.

Abstract

For most hierarchical triple stars, the classical double two-body model of zeroth-order cannot describe the motions of the components under the current observational accuracy. In this paper, Marchal's first-order analytical solution is implemented and a more efficient simplified version is applied to real triple stars. The results show that, for most triple stars, the proposed first-order model is preferable to the zeroth-order model both in fitting observational data and in predicting component positions.