Shrinking orbits in hierarchical quadruple star systems

TL;DR

This study investigates whether tidal and secular evolution can explain the observed short-period inner orbits in hierarchical quadruple star systems, using population synthesis simulations for different configurations.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed simulation-based analysis of inner orbital period distributions in quadruple systems, highlighting differences between 2+2 and 3+1 configurations.

Findings

Simulations produce short-period tails consistent with observations in 3+1 systems.

2+2 systems show an excess around 10 days not explained by secular and tidal evolution.

Other processes likely influence the inner orbital periods in 2+2 quadruples.

Abstract

The distribution of the inner orbital periods of solar-type main-sequence (MS) triple star systems is known to be peaked at a few days, and this has been attributed to tidal evolution combined with eccentricity excitation due to Lidov-Kozai oscillations. Solar-type MS quadruple star systems also show peaks in their inner orbital period distributions at a few days. Here, we investigate the natural question whether tidal evolution combined with secular evolution can explain the observed inner orbital period distributions in quadruple stars. We carry out population synthesis simulations of solar-type MS quadruple star systems in both the 2+2 (two binaries orbiting each other's barycentre) and 3+1 (triple orbited by a fourth star) configurations. We take into account secular gravitational and tidal evolution, and the effects of passing stars. We assume that no short-period systems are formed initially, and truncate the initial orbital period distributions below 10 d accordingly. We find that, due to secular and tidal evolution, the inner orbital period distributions develop tails at short periods. Although qualitatively consistent with the observations, we find that our simulated orbital period distributions only quantitatively agree with the observations for the 3+1 systems. The observed 2+2 systems, on the other hand, show an enhancement of systems around 10 d, which is not reproduced in the simulations. This suggests that the inner orbital periods of 2+2 systems are not predominantly shaped by tidal and secular evolution, but by other processes, most likely occurring during the stellar formation and early evolution.