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Hierarchical triple stars are ideal laboratories for studying the interplaybetween orbital dynamics and stellar evolution. Both stellar wind mass loss andthree-body dynamics cooperate to destabilise triples, which can lead to avariety of astrophysical exotica. So far our understanding of their evolutionwas mainly built upon results from extensive binary-single scatteringexperiments. Starting from generic initial conditions, we evolve an extensiveset of hierarchical triples using a combination of the triple evolution codeTRES and an N-body code. We find that the majority of triples preserve theirhierarchy throughout their evolution, which is in contradiction with thecommonly adopted picture that unstable triples always experience a chaotic,democratic resonant interaction. The duration of the unstable phase is muchlonger than expected, so that stellar evolution cannot be neglected. Typicallyan unstable triple dissolve into a single star and a binary; sometimesdemocratically (the initial hierarchy is lost and the lightest body usuallyescapes), but also in a hierarchical way (the tertiary is ejected in aslingshot, independent of its mass). Collisions are common, and mostly involvethe two original inner binary components still on the main-sequence. Thiscontradicts the idea that collisions with a giant during democratic encountersdominate. Together with collisions in stable triples, we find that tripleevolution is the dominant mechanism for stellar collisions in the Milky Way.Furthermore, our simulations produce runaway and walk-away stars with speeds upto several tens km/s, with a maximum of a few 100km/s. We suggest thatdestabilised triples can alleviate the tension behind the origin of theobserved run-away stars. Lastly, we present a promising indicator to makegeneral predictions for the fate of a specific triple, based on the initialinclination of the system.

Stellar triples on the edge; Comprehensive overview of the evolution of destabilised triples leading to stellar and binary exotica