On WD-WD Mergers in Triple Systems: The Role of Kozai Resonance with Tidal Friction

Understand

White dwarf-white dwarf (WD-WD) mergers may lead to type Ia supernovae events.

• Thompson (2011) suggested that many such binaries are produced in hierarchical triple systems.
• The tertiary induces eccentricity oscillations in the inner binary via the Kozai-Lidov mechanism, driving the binary to high eccentricities, and significantly reducing the gravitational wave merger timescale (T_GW) over a broad range of parameter space.
• Here, we investigate the role of tidal forces in these systems.