Absolute horizontal shear rate on the orbital plane after ∼650 orbits, for q=1/3 with a spline softening formulation, and for ϵ=0.5, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1, and 0.05, going from left to right and top to bottom in a clockwise direction. The cross and plus signs respectively indicate the position of the primary's core and of the companion. The black circles mark the extent of the softened spheres of radius ϵ.