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We present numerical simulations modeling the orbital evolution of very widebinaries, pairs of stars separated by over ~1000 AU. Due to perturbations fromother passing stars and the Milky Way's tide, the orbits of very wide binarystars occasionally become extremely eccentric, which forces close encountersbetween the companion stars (Kaib et al. 2013). We show that this processcauses a stellar collision between very wide binary companion stars once every1000-7500 years on average in the Milky Way. One of the main uncertainties inthis collision rate is the amount of energy dissipated by dynamic tides duringclose (but not collisional) periastron passages. This dissipation presents adynamical barrier to stellar collisions and can instead transform very widebinaries into close or contact binaries. However, for any plausible tidaldissipation model, very wide binary stars are an unrealized, and potentiallythe dominant, source of stellar collisions in our Galaxy. Such collisionsshould occur throughout the thin disk of the Milky Way. Stellar collisionswithin very wide binaries should yield a small population of single,Li-depleted, rapidly rotating massive stars.

Very Wide Binary Stars as the Primary Source of Stellar Collisions in the Galaxy