Shrinking Binary and Planetary Orbits by Kozai Cycles with Tidal Friction
Shrinking Binary and Planetary Orbits by Kozai Cycles with Tidal Friction
At least two arguments suggest that the orbits of a large fraction of binary stars and extrasolar planets shrank by 1-2 orders of magnitude after formation: (1) the physical radius of a star shrinks by a large factor from birth to the main sequence, yet many main-sequence stars have companions …