Machine learning prediction of binary formation in three-body gravitational encounters
Three-body encounters are frequent events in stellar systems, intrinsically chaotic, and computationally costly to model with direct N-body integration. Predicting whether such encounters lead to binary formation is therefore challenging, particularly in large-scale simulations. We aim to develop an accurate and physically interpretable machine-learning model that predicts binary formation from the initial conditions of three-body encounters, to assess its reliability, and to identify the physic…