The dynamical evolution of dense star clusters in galactic nuclei

1990 ◽  
Vol 356 ◽  
pp. 483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald D. Quinlan ◽  
Stuart L. Shapiro
2000 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 261-272
Author(s):  
J. Anosova ◽  
G. F. Benedict

AbstractWe construct models of a galaxy in order to provide a possible identification of the dynamical processes that lead to the formation of structure observed in galactic nuclei. We assume that the center of our model contains a very massive double black hole, surrounded by relatively low-mass particles - star clusters, gas, and dust complexes. Our previous work (Anosova et al. 1994, 1995) snowed that the dynamical evolution of such a model produces many structures similar to those observed in the nuclei of galaxies, including rings and various types of flows and jets. In such models the ’gravitational slingshot’ effect frequently occurs.We consider a number of such models with different initial parameters. Comparison of our models with the observed structure of NGC 4314 shows good agreement at one stage of the evolution for certain combinations of initial parameters. The model predicts the velocity field observed in NGC 4314.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-134
Author(s):  
Assylkhan Bibossinov ◽  
◽  
Denis Yurin ◽  
Chingis Omarov ◽  
◽  
...  

Numerical studies of astrophysical objects are a relatively new direction in Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute (FAI) and is mainly represented by the Laboratory of Cosmology, Stellar Dynamics and Computational Astrophysics. The lab seeks to understand the evolution of gravitating systems at various scales – from star clusters to galaxies to large-scale structure of the universe as a whole, and tackles these problems both through analytical methods and through numerical simulations. The particular focus is on numerical simulations of star clusters, especially those found in active galactic nuclei – this is a topic of oldestablished collaboration with colleagues from Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (Heidelberg) and National Astronomical Observatories of China (Beijing). The prominent example is STARDISK project dedicated to the numerical research of active galactic nuclei as multicomponent systems composed of compact stellar cluster, gaseous accretion disk and a supermassive black hole. It is demonstrated that an accretion disk can noticeably decelerate stars and thus enhance the accretion rate onto the black hole. In 2013 FAI hosted the MODEST-13 International Workshop dedicated to modeling of star clusters. Recently a new project has been approved aimed at construction of triaxial equilibrium N-body systems that can be of great help in various numerical experiments with disk galaxies. There are also long standing plans to perform cosmological simulations of large scale structures to test a new approach to dark matter and energy actively developed at FAI. For numerical calculations, FAI has a small, but growing computer cluster consisting of several high-performance computing servers equipped with computational GPU cards.


1998 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 139-140
Author(s):  
Ken Ohsuga ◽  
Masayuki Umemura

Recently, a novel mechanism for fueling active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has been proposed by Umemura et al. (1997a, b). That is a radiative avalanche, in which a rotating gas disk sheds angular momentum due to the radiation drag force exerted by starlight from circumnuclear starbursts, so that the mass accretion onto nuclei is driven. Originally, a thin ring of a starburst region has been assumed for simplicity. However, recent observations have revealed that circumnuclear starburst rings have radial extension of ∼ 10pc up to kpc, and they often consist of compact star clusters of < 10pc Thus, the ratio of the half thickness to curvature radius of the ring can be minimally less than one tenth when all the star clusters are aligned on a plane of an inner gas disk, while the ratio could be larger if the distributions of star clusters are extended due to some velocity dispersions.


1998 ◽  
Vol 188 ◽  
pp. 455-456
Author(s):  
M. Yokosawa

Active galactic nuclei(AGN) produce many type of active phenomena, powerful X-ray emission, UV hump, narrow beam ejection, gamma-ray emission. Energy of these phenomena is thought to be brought out binding energy between a black hole and surrounding matter. What condition around a black hole produces many type of active phenomena? We investigated dynamical evolution of accretion flow onto a black hole by using a general-relativistic, hydrodynamic code which contains a viscosity based on the alpha-model. We find three types of flow's pattern, depending on thickness of accretion disk. In a case of the thin disk with a thickness less than the radius of the event horizon at the vicinity of a marginally stable orbit, the accreting flow through a surface of the marginally stable orbit becomes thinner due to additional cooling caused by a general-relativistic Roche-lobe overflow and horizontal advection of heat. An accretion disk with a middle thickness, 2rh≤h≤ 3rh, divides into two flows: the upper region of the accreting flow expands into the atmosphere of the black hole, and the inner region of the flow becomes thinner, smoothly accreting onto the black hole. The expansion of the flow generates a dynamically violent structure around the event horizon. The kinetic energy of the violent motion becomes equivalent to the thermal energy of the accreting disk. The shock heating due to violent motion produces a thermally driven wind which flows through the atmosphere above the accretion disk. A very thick disk, 4rh≤h,forms a narrow beam whose energy is largely supplied from hot region generated by shock wave. The accretion flowing through the thick disk,h≥ 2rh, cannot only form a single, laminar flow falling into the black hole, but also produces turbulent-like structure above the event horizon. The middle disk may possibly emit the X-ray radiation observed in active galactic nuclei. The thin disk may produce UV hump of Seyfert galaxy. Thick disk may produce a jet observed in radio galaxy. The thickness of the disk is determined by accretion rate, such ashκ κes/cṁf(r) κ 10rhṁf(r), at the inner region of the disk where the radiation pressure dominates over the gas pressure. Here, Ṁ is the accretion rate and ṁ is the normarized one by the critical-mass flux of the Eddington limit. κesandcare the opacity by electron scattering and the velocity of light.f(r) is a function with a value of unity far from the hole.


2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (2) ◽  
pp. 1807-1825
Author(s):  
Katja Stock ◽  
Maxwell X Cai ◽  
Rainer Spurzem ◽  
M B N Kouwenhoven ◽  
Simon Portegies Zwart

ABSTRACT Despite the discovery of thousands of exoplanets in recent years, the number of known exoplanets in star clusters remains tiny. This may be a consequence of close stellar encounters perturbing the dynamical evolution of planetary systems in these clusters. Here, we present the results from direct N-body simulations of multiplanetary systems embedded in star clusters containing N = 8k, 16k, 32k, and 64k stars. The planetary systems, which consist of the four Solar system giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are initialized in different orbital configurations, to study the effect of the system architecture on the dynamical evolution of the entire planetary system, and on the escape rate of the individual planets. We find that the current orbital parameters of the Solar system giants (with initially circular orbits, as well as with present-day eccentricities) and a slightly more compact configuration, have a high resilience against stellar perturbations. A configuration with initial mean-motion resonances of 3:2, 3:2, and 5:4 between the planets, which is inspired by the Nice model, and for which the two outermost planets are usually ejected within the first 105 yr, is in many cases stabilized due to the removal of the resonances by external stellar perturbation and by the rapid ejection of at least one planet. Assigning all planets the same mass of 1 MJup almost equalizes the survival fractions. Our simulations reproduce the broad diversity amongst observed exoplanet systems. We find not only many very wide and/or eccentric orbits, but also a significant number of (stable) retrograde orbits.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Fukue

Abstract We reexamine the steady spherical wind from distributed sources, such as star clusters and a galactic center, taking into account the radiative force from distributed sources and mass reduction via orbital motions. We consider a cold dusty wind, an isothermal gaseous flow, and a nonisothermal general one without/with a central mass and a stagnation radius for various powers of source distributions. We perform singular point analysis for each case, and obtain a transonic solution, if one exists. We find that thermally driven outflows can emerge in limited situations, such that the source distribution is rather steep in the isothermal flow. On the other hand, under the appropriate conditions radiatively driven winds can easily be produced. Radiative cluster winds without a central mass could emerge from newly born star clusters or neutron star clusters, whereas those with a central mass could appear from active galactic nuclei. Radiative cluster winds would also operate in first star clusters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (2) ◽  
pp. 2825-2835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Fragione ◽  
Nathan W C Leigh ◽  
Rosalba Perna

ABSTRACT Nuclear star clusters that surround supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei are thought to contain large numbers of black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs), a fraction of which form binaries and could merge by Kozai–Lidov oscillations (KL). Triple compact objects are likely to be present, given what is known about the multiplicity of massive stars, whose life ends either as an NS or a BH. In this paper, we present a new possible scenario for merging BHs and NSs in galactic nuclei. We study the evolution of a triple black hole (BH) or neutron star (NS) system orbiting an SMBH in a galactic nucleus by means of direct high-precision N-body simulations, including post-Newtonian terms. We find that the four-body dynamical interactions can increase the KL angle window for mergers compared to the binary case and make BH and NS binaries merge on shorter time-scales. We show that the merger fraction can be up to ∼5–8 times higher for triples than for binaries. Therefore, even if the triple fraction is only ∼10–$20\rm{\,per\,cent}$ of the binary fraction, they could contribute to the merger events observed by LIGO/VIRGO in comparable numbers.


1988 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 571-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kontizas ◽  
D. Hatzidimitriou ◽  
M. Metaxa

Several dynamical theories have been developed in order to approach the dynamical evolution of stellar systems and explain the observational data. The observed density profiles of the clusters can be a valuable source of information towards the understanding of their dynamical properties. King in a series of papers has connected the established theories with the observed profiles in clusters of our own Galaxy (King, 1962, 1966; etc.). Density profiles can be obtained by means of star counts and/or by means of photometric photometry. So far the observations for clusters in our Galaxy and the MCs appear to fit well the so called King models and provide information of their tidal radii, total masses and concentration parameters (Kontizas, 1984).


1985 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 373-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart L. Shapiro

The dynamical behavior of a relaxed star cluster containing a massive, central black hole poses a challenging problem for the theorist and intriguing possibilities for the observer. The historical development of the subject is sketched and the salient features of the physical solution and its observational consequences are summarized.The full dynamical problem of a relaxed, self-gravitating, large N-body system containing a massive central black hole has all the necessary ingredients to excite the most dispassionate many-body, computational physicist: it is a time-dependent, multidimensional, nonlinear problem which must be solved over widely disparate length and time scales simultaneously. The problem has been tackled at various levels of approximation over the years. A new 2+1 dimensional Monte Carlo simulation code has been developed in appreciable generality to solve the time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation in E-J space for this problem. The code incorporates such features as (1) a particle “cloning and renormalization” scheme to provide a statistically reliable population of test particles in low density regions of phase space and (2) a time-step “adjustment” algorithm to ensure integration on local relaxation timescales without having to follow typical particles on orbital trajectories. However, critical regions in phase space (e.g. disruption “loss-cone” trajectories) can still be followed on orbital timescales. Numerical results obtained with this Monte Carlo scheme for the dynamical structure and evolution of globular star clusters and dense galactic nuclei containing massive black holes are reviewed.Recent dynamical integrations of the Einstein field equations for spherical, collisionless (Vlasov) systems in General Relativity suggest a possible origin for the supermassive black holes believed to power quasars and active galactic nuclei. This scenario is discussed briefly.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document