Dynamics of rotating triple systems

We investigate the dynamical evolution of 100 000 rotating triple systems with equal-mass components. The system rotation is specified by the parameter ω=?c²E, where c and E are the angular momentum and total energy of the triple system, respectively. We consider ω=0.1,1, 2, 4, 6 and study 20 000 triple systems with randomly specified coordinates and velocities of the bodies for each ω. We consider two methods for specifying initial conditions: with and without a hierarchical structure at the beginning of the evolution. The evolution of each system is traced until the escape of one of the bodies or until the critical time equal to 1000 mean system crossing times. For each set of initial conditions, we computed parameters of the final motions: orbital parameters for the final binary and the escaping body. We analyze variations in the statistical characteristics of the distributions of these parameters with ω. The mean disruption time of triple systems and the fraction of the systems that have not been disrupted in 1000 mean crossing times increase with ω. The final binaries become, on average, wider at larger angular momenta. The distribution of their eccentricities does not depend on ω and generally agrees with the theoretical law f(e)=2e. The velocities of the escaping bodies, on average, decrease with increasing angular momentum of the triple system. The fraction of the angles between the escaping-body velocity vector and the triple-system angular momentum close to 90° increases with ω. Escapes in the directions opposite to rotation and prograde motions dominate at small and large angular momenta, respectively. For slowly rotating systems, the angular momentum during their disruption is, on average, evenly divided between the escaping body and the final binary, whereas in rapidly rotating systems, about 80% of the angular momentum is carried away by the escaping component. We compare our numerical simulations with the statistical theory of triple-system disruption.