On the phase-mixed eccentricity and inclination distributions of wide binaries in the Galaxy

TL;DR

This paper models how Galactic tides influence the eccentricity and inclination distributions of wide binaries, showing that phase mixing alone cannot produce superthermal eccentricities unless initially present.

Contribution

It isolates the effect of Galactic tides on wide binary phase space distribution and demonstrates that superthermal eccentricities require superthermal initial conditions.

Findings

Galactic tides induce anisotropic, non-thermal distributions in wide binaries.

Phase mixing alone cannot generate superthermal eccentricities.

Initial superthermal conditions are necessary for superthermal distributions after phase mixing.

Abstract

Modern observational surveys allow us to probe the phase space distribution function (DF) of wide binaries in the Solar neighbourhood. This DF exhibits non-trivial features, in particular a superthermal distribution of eccentricities for semimajor axes $a\gtrsim 10^3$AU. To interpret such features we must first understand how the binary DF is affected by dynamical perturbations, which typically fall into two classes: (i) stochastic kicks from passing stars, molecular clouds, etc. and (ii) secular torques from the Galactic tide. Here we isolate effect (ii) and calculate the time-asymptotic, phase-mixed DF for an ensemble of wide binaries under quadrupole-order tides. For binaries wide enough that the phase-mixing assumption is valid, none of our results depend explicitly on semimajor axes, masses, etc. We show that unless the initial DF is both isotropic in binary orientation and thermal in eccentricity, then the final phase-mixed DF is always both anisotropic and non-thermal. However, the only way to produce a superthermal DF under phase mixing is for the initial DF to itself be superthermal.