A census of main-sequence interactions in the Multiple Star Catalog

Understand

Statistics of hierarchical systems containing three or more stars are continuously improving.

• The Multiple Star Catalog (MSC) is currently the most comprehensive catalogue of multiple-star systems and contains component masses, orbital periods, and additional information.
• The systems in the MSC are interesting for several reasons, including the long-term dynamical evolution of few-body systems.
• Although the secular evolution of triples and quadruples has been explored before, a systematic study of the systems in the MSC including also quintuples and sextuples has not been carried out.