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Secular Evolution of the Eccentricity in the PSR 1620-26 Triple System

F. A. Rasio

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9406022

Abstract

A simple analytic calculation is presented for the secular evolution of the eccentricities in a hierarchical triple system such as the one containing the millisecond pulsar PSR 1620-26 in M4. If the second companion of PSR 1620-26 is of stellar mass (m20.1\,M), an eccentricity as large as that observed today for the inner binary (e10.03) could very well have been induced by secular perturbations. In contrast, such a large eccentricity cannot be induced by a second companion of planetary mass.

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