Dynamics of recaptures, ejections and mergers of stellar mass binaries over multiple encounters with SgrA*

TL;DR

This study investigates how stellar binaries near a massive black hole evolve through multiple encounters, revealing that disruption is most common, but mergers and ejections also occur depending on orbital parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of binary evolution over multiple encounters using a restricted three-body model, highlighting the dependence on orbital inclination and encounter depth.

Findings

Disruption is the most common binary fate.

Multiple encounters increase disruption rates by over 20%.

Mergers occur in 31% of cases, influenced by stellar sizes and lifetimes.

Abstract

A common origin for a host of stellar phenomena in galactic centres is the tidal encounter between stellar binaries and a massive black hole (MBH), known as the ``Hills mechanism''. Following the encounter, binaries may disrupt into an ejected star and a captured one, they may merge, or survive to either fly away or come back for one or more subsequent encounters, until they are either disrupted or fly away. In this paper, we analyse how a binary's fate depends on its orbital parameters, by following its evolution through up to three subsequent pericentre passages. We choose an initial population of circular binaries on parabolic orbits. We present results from our restricted three-body formalism, whose strength lies in the ability to easily explore a multidimensional parameter space and make predictions independent of the binary physical properties. We find that fates depend strongly on orbital inclination, how deep the encounter is into the MBH tidal sphere and on the binary eccentricity, developed during encounters. Generally, non retrograde trajectories, high eccentricities or deep encounters produce disruptions preferentially. Disruption is the most common fate. A significant fraction of the surviving binaries fly away at velocities typically two orders of magnitude smaller than those of ejected stars. Multiple encounters boost disruptions by 20\% or more. Finally, using an example system, we investigate the effect of finite stellar sizes and lifetimes, showing that mergers occur 31\% of the time, and that disruptions are still boosted by 10\% through subsequent passages.