Abstract
We simulate numerically encounters of wide binaries with field stars and Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) by means of the impulse approximation. We analyze the time evolution of the distributions of eccentricities and semimajor axes of wide binaries with given initial conditions, at intervals of 109 yr, up to 1010 yr (assumed age of the Galaxy). We compute the fraction of surviving binaries for stellar encounters, for GMC encounters and for a combination of both, and hence, the dynamical lifetime for different semimajor axes and different masses of binaries (0.5, 1, 1.2, 1.5, 2.5, and 3 Msolar). We find that the dynamical lifetime of wide binaries considering only GMCs is half than that considering only stars. For encounters with GMCs we analyze the influence of the initial inclination of the orbital plane of the binary with respect to the plane perpendicular to the relative velocity vector of the binary and the GMC. We find that the perturbation is maximum when the angle is minimum.
