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Constraining intermediate-mass black holes from the stellar disc of SgrA∗

  • Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris
  • Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • University of California, Santa Cruz
  • The University of Texas at Austin

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Stars evolving around a supermassive black hole see their orbital orientations diffuse efficiently, a process called 'vector resonant relaxation'. In particular, stars within the same disc, i.e. neighbours in orientations, will slowly diffuse away from one another through this stochastic process. We use jointly (i) detailed kinetic predictions for the efficiency of this dilution and (ii) the recent observation of a stellar disc around SgrA∗, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, to constrain SgrA∗'s unobserved stellar cluster. Notably, we investigate quantitatively the impact of a population of intermediate-mass black holes on the survivability of the stellar disc.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1471-1481
Number of pages11
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume526
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • diffusion
  • galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
  • galaxies: nuclei
  • gravitation

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