The Hill stability of a binary or planetary system during encounters with a third inclined body moving on a hyperbolic orbit

The dynamical interaction of a binary or planetary system and a third body moving on a hyperbolic orbit inclined to the system is discussed in terms of Hill stability for the full three-body problem. The situation arises in binary star disruption and exchange and planetary system exchange or capture. It is found that increasing the inclination of the third body decreases the Hill regions of stability. Increasing the eccentricity of the third body also produces similar effects. These type of changes make exchange or disruption of the component masses more likely as also does increasing the eccentricity of the binary. The critical distances and Hill stability ranges associated with the possible formation of roughly equal mass trans-Neptunian binaries from three-body interactions are determined for a range of secondary component masses. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.