Many close stellar binaries are accompanied by a far-away star. The
"eccentric Kozai-Lidov" (EKL) mechanism can cause dramatic inclination and
eccentricity fluctuations, resulting in tidal tightening of inner binaries of
triple stars. We run a large set of Monte-Carlo simulations including the
secular evolution of the orbits, general relativistic precession and tides, and
we determine the semimajor axis, eccentricity, inclination and spin-orbit angle
distributions of the final configurations. We find that the efficiency of
forming tight binaries (<~16 d) when taking the EKL mechanism into account is ~
21%, and about 4% of all simulated systems ended up in a merger event. These
merger events can lead to the formation of blue-stragglers. Furthermore, we
find that the spin-orbit angle distribution of the inner binaries carries a
signature of the initial setup of the system, thus observations can be used to
disentangle close binaries' birth configuration. The resulting inner and outer
final orbits' period distributions, and their estimated fraction, suggests
secular dynamics may be a significant channel for the formation of close
binaries in triples and even blue stragglers.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 10 figure
