Close Encounters of Wide Binaries Induced by the Galactic Tide: Implications for Stellar Mergers and Gravitational-Wave Sources

Jakob Stegmann, Alejandro Vigna-Gómez, Antti Rantala +6

A substantial fraction of stars can be found in wide binaries with projected separations between $\sim 10^2$ and $10^5\mathrm{AU}$. In the standard lore of binary physics, these would…