Tidal friction in triple stars

Tidal friction in close binaries, with periods of a few days, is expected to circularize the orbit on a time-scale long compared with human observation but shorter than, or comparable to, the lifetimes of main-sequence stars. In a hierarchical triple star, however, the perturbing effect of the distant third star may decircularize the inner orbit significantly on a time-scale of the order of days (as in λ Tau) or centuries (as in β Per). If the inner pair is observed to be semidetached, however, it is plausible to assume that the eccentricity is small. This may be because tidal friction is operating on a comparably short time-scale, and so it is in principle amenable to observation. We attempt to determine a lower limit to the strength of tidal friction in λ Tau and β Per, on the basis of this consideration.