Stellar Dynamics and Stellar Phenomena Near a Massive Black Hole

By T. Alexander. 2017

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Most galactic nuclei harbor a massive black hole (MBH), whose birth and evolution are closely linked to those of its host galaxy. The unique conditions near the MBH—high velocity and density in the steep potential of a massive singular relativistic object—lead to unusual modes of stellar birth, evolution, dynamics, and death. A complex network of dynamical mechanisms, operating on multiple timescales, deflects stars to orbits that intercept the MBH. Such close encounters lead to energetic interactions with observable signatures and consequences for the evolution of the MBH and its stellar environment. Galactic nuclei are astrophysical laboratories that test and challenge our understanding of MBH formation, strong gravity, stellar dynamics, and stellar physics. I review from a theoretical perspective the wide range of stellar phenomena that occur near MBHs, focusing on the role of stellar dynamics near an isolated MBH in a relaxed stellar cusp.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/778f6706629a597dec475342d8d9786e5ada2a0c

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Citations in the corpus

Unveiling the gravitational universe at μ-Hz frequencies (2019, background): “04 parsecs surrounding SgrA∗ should have a ‘dark cluster’ of compact remnants and faint low-mass stars [10].”
Detection of the Schwarzschild precession in the orbit of the star S2 near the Galactic centre massive black hole (2020, background): “For comparison, modelling of the star cluster suggests that the total stellar content within the apocentre of S2 is < 1000M , and the mass of stellar black holes within that radius is 80 − 340M (Figure D.1, cf. Genzel et al. 2010; Alexander 2017; Baumgardt et al. 2018).”
Black hole and neutron star mergers in galactic nuclei (2018, unknown): “Typically, stars tend to have α ∼ 1.5–1.75, whereas BHs tend to have α ∼ 2–3 due to mass segregation (Alexander 2017).”
Eccentric Black Hole Gravitational-wave Capture Sources in Galactic Nuclei: Distribution of Binary Parameters (2017, methodology): “…and angular momentum diffusion and dynamical friction due to two-body interactions among all objects in the system (Bahcall & Wolf 1976, 1977; Freitag et al. 2006; Hopman & Alexander 2006; Alexander & Hopman 2009; O’Leary et al. 2009; Bar-Or et al. 2013; Bar-Or & Alexander 2016; Alexander 2017).”