An official website of the United States government
Abstract Close encounters between stellar-mass black holes (BHs) and stars occur frequently in dense star clusters and in the disks of active galactic nuclei. Recent studies have shown that in highly eccentric close encounters, the star can be tidally disrupted by the BH in a microtidal disruption event (microTDE), resulting in rapid mass accretion and possibly bright electromagnetic signatures. Here we consider a scenario in which the star might approach the stellar-mass BH in a gradual, nearly circular inspiral, under the influence of dynamical friction in a circum-binary gas disk or three-body interactions in a star cluster. We perform hydrodynamics simulations of this scenario using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics codePHANTOM. We find that under certain circumstances (for initial eccentricitye0≳ 0.4 and penetration factorβ= 1, ore0< 0.4 andβ≲ 0.67), the mass of the star is slowly stripped away by the BH. We call this gradual tidal disruption a “tidal-peeling event.” Additionally, we discover that some low-eccentricity microTDEs (e0< 0.4 andβ= 1) are a new form of fast luminous transients similar to parabolic microTDEs. Depending on the initial distance and eccentricity of the encounter, these low-eccentricity microTDEs might exhibit significant accretion rates and orbital evolution distinct from those of a typical (eccentric) microTDE.
more »
« less
Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy. III. The Dynamical Substructures
Abstract We measure the 3D kinematic structures of the young stars within the central 0.5 pc of our Galactic Center using the 10 m telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory over a time span of 25 yr. Using high-precision measurements of positions on the sky and proper motions and radial velocities from new observations and the literature, we constrain the orbital parameters for each young star. Our results show two statistically significant substructures: a clockwise stellar disk with 18 candidate stars, as has been proposed before, but with an improved disk membership; and a second, almost edge-on plane of 10 candidate stars oriented east–west on the sky that includes at least one IRS 13 star. We estimate the eccentricity distribution of each substructure and find that the clockwise disk has 〈e〉 = 0.39 and the edge-on plane has 〈e〉 = 0.68. We also perform simulations of each disk/plane with incompleteness and spatially variable extinction to search for asymmetry. Our results show that the clockwise stellar disk is consistent with a uniform azimuthal distribution within the disk. The edge-on plane has an asymmetry that cannot be explained by variable extinction or incompleteness in the field. The orientation, asymmetric stellar distribution, and high eccentricity of the edge-on plane members suggest that this structure may be a stream associated with the IRS 13 group. The complex dynamical structure of the young nuclear cluster indicates that the star formation process involved complex gas structures and dynamics and is inconsistent with a single massive gaseous disk.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1909554
- PAR ID:
- 10415079
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 949
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 18
- Size(s):
- Article No. 18
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract We present maps of the mean metallicity distributions on the GalactocentricR–Zplane at different azimuthal angles using red clump stars selected from the LAMOST and APOGEE surveys. In the inner disk (R < 11 kpc), the metallicity distribution is symmetric between the upper and lower disk. However, we find a north–south metallicity asymmetry in the outer disk (R > 11 kpc), especially toward the anti-Galactic center (−5∘ < Φ < 15°) direction. By further dissecting the map in age space, we detect this asymmetry across all mono-age stellar populations. However, the asymmetry is less pronounced in older populations (τ > 8 Gyr) compared to younger ones (τ < 6 Gyr). This reduced significance likely stems from three factors: larger age uncertainties, fewer stars in the outer disk, and the kinematically hotter nature of older populations. The observed metallicity asymmetry may be the consequence of the perturbation of the recent pericentric passage through the Galactic disk and tidal force of the well-known Sagittarius dwarf galaxy.more » « less
-
Abstract The Galactic center hosts a rotating disk of young stars between 0.05 and 0.5 pc of Sgr A*. The “S stars” at a distance <0.04 pc, however, are on eccentric orbits with nearly isotropically distributed inclinations. The dynamical origin of the S-star cluster has remained a theoretical challenge. Using a series ofN-body simulations, we show that a recent massive black hole merger with Sgr A* can self-consistently produce many of the orbital properties of the Galactic nuclear star cluster within 0.5 pc. A black hole merger results in a gravitational-wave recoil kick, which causes the surrounding cluster to form an apse-aligned eccentric disk. We show that stars near the inner edge of an eccentric disk migrate inward and are driven to high eccentricities and inclinations due to secular torques similar to the eccentric Kozai–Lidov mechanism. In our fiducial model, starting with a thin eccentric disk withe= 0.3, the initially unoccupied region within 0.04 pc is populated with high-eccentricity, high-inclination S stars within a few Myr. This formation channel requires a black hole of mass to have merged with Sgr A* within the last 10 Myr.more » « less
-
Abstract We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the Class I source Oph IRS 63 in the context of the Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks large program. Our ALMA observations of Oph IRS 63 show a myriad of protostellar features, such as a shell-like bipolar outflow (in12CO), an extended rotating envelope structure (in13CO), a streamer connecting the envelope to the disk (in C18O), and several small-scale spiral structures seen toward the edge of the dust continuum (in SO). By analyzing the velocity pattern of13CO and C18O, we measure a protostellar mass ofM⋆= 0.5 ± 0.2M⊙and confirm the presence of a disk rotating at almost Keplerian velocity that extends up to ∼260 au. These calculations also show that the gaseous disk is about four times larger than the dust disk, which could indicate dust evolution and radial drift. Furthermore, we model the C18O streamer and SO spiral structures as features originating from an infalling rotating structure that continuously feeds the young protostellar disk. We compute an envelope-to-disk mass infall rate of ∼10−6M⊙yr−1and compare it to the disk-to-star mass accretion rate of ∼10−8M⊙yr−1, from which we infer that the protostellar disk is in a mass buildup phase. At the current mass infall rate, we speculate that soon the disk will become too massive to be gravitationally stable.more » « less
-
Context.Most stars form in clusters or associations, but only a small number of these groups are expected to remain bound for longer than a few megayears. Once star formation has ended and the molecular gas around young stellar objects has been expelled via feedback processes, most initially bound young clusters lose the majority of their binding mass and begin to disperse into the Galactic field. Aims.This process can be investigated by analysing the structure and kinematic trends in nearby young clusters, particularly by analyzing the trend of expansion, which is a tell-tale sign that a cluster is no longer gravitationally bound and dispersing into the field. Methods.We combinedGaiaDR3 five-parameter astrometry with calibrated RVs for members of the nearby young clusterλOri (Collinder 69). Results.We characterised the plane-of-sky substructure of the cluster using theQ-parameter and the angular dispersion parameter. We find evidence that the cluster contains a significant substructure but that this is preferentially located away from the central cluster core, which is smooth and likely remains bound. We found strong evidence for expansion inλOri in the plane of sky by using a number of metrics, but we also found that the trends are asymmetric at the 5σsignificance level, with the maximum rate of expansion being directed nearly parallel to the Galactic plane. We subsequently inverted the maximum rate of expansion of 0.144−0.003+0.003kms−1pc−1to give an expansion timescale of 6.944−0.142+0.148Myr, which is slightly larger than the typical literature age estimates for the cluster. We also found asymmetry in the velocity dispersion as well as signatures of cluster rotation, and we calculated the kinematic ages for individual cluster members by tracing their motion back in time to their closest approach to the cluster centre.more » « less
