Close triple approaches and escape in the three-body problem

We have studied a total of 5000 close triple approaches resulting in escape, for equal-mass systems with zero initial velocities. Escape is shown to take place in the majority of the cases after a fly-by close triple approach when the escaper passes near the centre of mass along an almost straight-line orbit. A number of configurational and kinematical parameters are introduced in order to characterize the triple approach. The distributions of these parameters are investigated. A comparison with 831 examples in the vicinity of the so-called Pythagorean problem is carried out. We find that the general features of close triple approaches which result in escape are the same for both types of systems.