Signatures of recoiled supermassive black holes

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa, since 7/2010
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2007 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 42513258

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

The aim of this project was to study the dynamics of dense stellar systems of stars around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) by means of direct N-body simulations. We particularly studied the dynamics of stars inside the central parsec of the Milky Way since the Galactic centre is the best observed example of a stellar system around a massive black hole. Our simulations showed that the hypervelocity stars in the halo of the Milky Way could have been ejected from the galactic centre by inspiraling intermediate-mass black holes. We also found that stars in the two young stellar discs in the galactic centre significantly influence each others orbits such that stars on initially circular orbits are scattered onto high eccentricity orbits within a few Myr. Some of these stars might become progenitors of the S-stars seen close to Sgr A*. We finally found that the luminosity function of stars in the galactic centre is compatible with continuous star formation following a canonical IMF like a Kroupa (IMF), despite the high stellar density and the strong tidal field from Sgr A*.

Publications

• (2008). A new method to create initially mass segregated star clusters in virial equilibrium. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 385(3), 1673-1680
  Subr, L., Kroupa, P., Baumgardt, H.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12993.x)
• (2008). Origin of the S Stars in the Galactic Center. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 683(2), L151
  Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H., Kroupa, P.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1086/591734)
• (2008). Tracing intermediate-mass black holes in the Galactic Centre. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 384(1), 323-330
  Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12699.x)
• 2008, in Dynamical Evolution of Dense Stellar Systems, IAU Symposium 246, eds. E. Vesperini, M. Giersz & A. Sills, p. 367-368
  Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H.
  
• (2009). Influence of a stellar cusp on the dynamics of young stellar discs and the origin of the S-stars in the Galactic Centre. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 398(1), 429-437
  Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H., Kroupa, P.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15157.x)
• (2009). On the number of young stellar discs in the Galactic Centre. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 394(4), 1841-1846
  Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14466.x)
• (2010). Constraining the initial mass function of stars in the Galactic Centre. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 402(1), 519-525
  Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H., Kroupa, P.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15906.x)
• 2010, in Pathways Towards Habitable Planets, ASP Conf. Ser. 430, eds. V. Coude du Foresto, D.M. Gelino & I. Ribas, p. 399
  Amaro-Seoane, P., Ribas, I., Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H.