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Hierarchical triple systems are common among field stars yet their long-termevolution is poorly understood theoretically. In such systems Kozai cycles canbe induced in the inner binary system during which the inner orbit eccentricityand the inclination between both binary orbits vary periodically. These cycles,combined with tidal friction and gravitational wave emission, can significantlyaffect the inner binary evolution. To investigate these effects quantitativelywe perform a population synthesis study of triple systems and focus onevolutionary paths that lead to mergers of carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs(WDs), which constitute an important candidate progenitor channel for type Iasupernovae (SNe Ia). We approach this problem by Monte Carlo sampling fromobservation-based distributions of systems within the primary mass range 1.0 -6.5 M_Sun and inner orbit semi-major axes a_1 and eccentricities e_1 satisfyinga_1 (1-e_1^2) > 12 AU, i.e. non-interacting in the absence of a tertiarycomponent. We evolve these systems by means of a newly developed algorithm thatcouples secular triple dynamics with an existing binary population synthesiscode. We find that the tertiary significantly alters the inner binary evolutionin about 24% of all sampled systems. In particular, we find several channelsleading to CO WD mergers. Amongst these is a novel channel in which a collisionoccurs in wide inner binary systems as a result of extremely higheccentricities induced by Kozai cycles. With assumptions on which CO WD mergerslead to a SN Ia explosion we estimate the SNe Ia delay time distributionresulting from triples and compare to a binary population synthesis study andto observations. Although we find that our triple rate is low, we havedetermined a lower limit of the triple-induced SNe Ia rate and further study isneeded that includes triples with initially tighter inner orbits.

Population synthesis of triple systems in the context of mergers of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs