The Young Stars in the Galactic Center

Fellenberg, S. D. von; Gillessen, S.; Stadler, Julia; Bauböck, M.; Genzel, R.; Zeeuw, P. T. de; Pfuhl, O.; Seoane, Pau Amaro; Drescher, A.; Eisenhauer, F.; Habibi, M.; Ott, Thomas; Widmann, F.; Young, A.

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac68ef

Cited by 38 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The existence of the CW disk has already been verified to be significant (∼ 20σ) (Paumard et al 2006;Bartko et al 2010;Lu et al 2009;Yelda et al 2014). More recently, as many as 5 distinct sub-structures, including the CW disk, have been proposed by von Fellenberg et al (2022). A detailed comparison between our result and previous work is presented in §6.1 and Appendix B.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy III: The Dynamical Sub-structures

Jia¹,

Xu²,

Lu³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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We measure the 3D kinematic structures of the young stars within the central 0.5 parsec of our Galactic Center using the 10 m telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory over a time span of 25 years. 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 sub-structures: a clockwise stellar disk with 18 candidate stars, as has been proposed before, but with an improved disk membership; 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 sub-structure and find that the clockwise disk has = 0.39 and the edge-on plane has = 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.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy III: The Dynamical Sub-structures

Jia¹,

Xu²,

Lu³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Additionally, we find that X7 orbit is not oriented in the same plane and direction of clock-wise stellar disk (Paumard et al 2006) nor other stellar features in the region (von Fellenberg et al 2022).…”

Section: Association With Nearby Objectsmentioning

confidence: 64%

The Swansong of the Galactic Center Source X7: An Extreme Example of Tidal Evolution near the Supermassive Black Hole

Campbell¹,

Morris²,

Do³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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We present two decades of new high-angular-resolution near-infrared data from the W. M. Keck Observatory that reveal extreme evolution in X7, an elongated dust and gas feature, presently located half an arcsecond from the Galactic Center supermassive black hole. With both spectro-imaging observations of Br-γ line-emission and Lp (3.8 µm) imaging data, we provide the first estimate of its orbital parameters and quantitative characterization of the evolution of its morphology and mass. We find that the leading edge of X7 appears to be on a mildly eccentric (e∼0.3), relatively short-period (170 years) orbit and is headed towards periapse passage, estimated to occur in ∼2036. Furthermore, our kinematic measurements rule out the earlier suggestion that X7 is associated with the stellar source S0-73 or with any other point source that has overlapped with X7 during our monitoring period. Over the course of our observations, X7 has (1) become more elongated, with a current length-to-width ratio of 9, (2) maintained a very consistent long-axis orientation (position angle of 50 • ), (3) inverted its radial velocity differential from tip to tail from -50 to +80 km/sec, and (4) sustained its total brightness (12.8 Lp magnitudes at the leading edge) and color temperature (425 K), which suggest a constant mass of ∼50 M Earth . We present a simple model showing that these results are compatible with the expected effect of tidal forces exerted on it by the central black hole and we propose that X7 is the gas and dust recently ejected from a grazing collision in a binary system.

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“…More recently, a detailed analysis of the central star cluster was presented by von Fellenberg et al (2022), who identified several kinematic features. While two of them were identified as the previously reported clockwise and counterclockwise disks, two other prominent overdensities in angular momentum were reported.…”

Section: Observations Of the Young Stellar Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The central region of the Milky Way has been the subject of considerable investigation for several decades. In addition to a supermassive black hole (SMBH) of about 4 × 10 6 M e (Eckart & Genzel 1996;Boehle et al 2016), the central parsec region hosts over 100 young massive stars whose existence and formation channels are puzzling (Genzel et al 2003;Levin & Beloborodov 2003;Perets et al 2009), and whose organization in one (Levin & Beloborodov 2003), or possibly two, misaligned disks with respect to the galactic plane (e.g., Paumard et al 2006;Bartko et al 2009;von Fellenberg et al 2022) is also of an unclear nature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disks of Stars in the Galactic Center Triggered by Tidal Disruption Events

Perna

Grishin

2022

ApJL

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In addition to a supermassive black hole (SMBH), the central parsec of the Milky Way hosts over 100 massive, high-velocity young stars whose existence, and organization of a subset of them in one, or possibly two, misaligned disks, is puzzling. Due to a combination of low medium density and strong tidal forces in the vicinity of Sgr A*, stars are not expected to form. Here we propose a novel scenario for their in situ formation: a jetted tidal disruption event (TDE) from an older wandering star triggers an episode of positive feedback of star formation in the plane perpendicular to the jet, as demonstrated via numerical simulations in the context of jet-induced feedback in galactic outflows. An overpressured cocoon surrounding the jet shock-compresses clumps to densities high enough to resist the SMBH tidal field. The TDE rate of 10−5–10−4 yr−1 per galaxy, out of which a few percent of events are jetted, implies a jetted TDE event per galaxy to occur every few million years. This timescale is interestingly of the same order of the age of the disk stars. The mass function predicted by our mechanism is top heavy. Additionally, since TDEs are isotropic, our model predicts a random orientation for the disk of stars with respect to the plane of the galaxy and, due to the relatively high TDE rate, can account for multiple disks of stars with uncorrelated orientations.

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The Young Stars in the Galactic Center

Cited by 38 publications

References 57 publications

Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy III: The Dynamical Sub-structures

Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of Our Galaxy III: The Dynamical Sub-structures

The Swansong of the Galactic Center Source X7: An Extreme Example of Tidal Evolution near the Supermassive Black Hole

Disks of Stars in the Galactic Center Triggered by Tidal Disruption Events

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