# An analytic method for identifying dynamically-formed runaway stars

## TL;DR

This paper develops an analytic method to identify dynamically-formed runaway stars by relating their velocity vectors to binary properties, validated through simulations, with applications to GAIA data and specific runaway stars.

## Contribution

It introduces a simple analytic formula linking ejected stars' velocities to binary separation, aiding the identification of dynamical runaways in observational data.

## Key findings

- Analytic formula matches simulation results with high accuracy.
- Method can be applied to GAIA data to identify runaway stars.
- Application to specific stars constrains background potential history.

## Abstract

In this paper, we study the 3-body products (two single stars and a binary) of binary-binary (2+2) scattering interactions. This is done using a combination of analytic methods and numerical simulations of 2+2 scattering interactions, both in isolation and in a homogeneous background potential. We derive analytically a simple formula relating the angle between the velocity vectors of the two ejected single stars and the orbital separation of the remaining binary. We compare our analytic formulation to numerical scattering simulations, and illustrate that the agreement is excellent, both in isolation and in a homogeneous background potential. Our results are ideally suited for application to the GAIA database, which is expected to identify many hundred runaway stars. The analytic relation presented here has the potential to identify runaway stars formed dynamically with high confidence. Finally, by applying our method to the runaways AE Aur and $\mu$ Col, we illustrate that it can be used to constrain the history of the background potential, which was denser than the presently observed density in the case of the Trapezium cluster.