Physics Colloquium: Dynamical Processes in the Galactic Center

abstract:

The center of our galaxy is a fertile ground to many violent processes, due to the extreme density of stars, over a milion times larger than in our neighbourhood, and due to the presence of a black hole 4 million times the mass of our sun. Stellar binaries which arrive close to the black hole, are distroyed, ejecting some stars at velocities of 1000km/s away from our galaxy. Single stars which arrive even closer to the black hole are distroyed in a spectacular event that could be seen in distant galaxies. Small gravitational interactions between stars are needed to deflect new stars into these deadly orbits. We review these processes, estimate their rates, and derive the expected stellar density profile around the supermassive black hole. We compare these rates to that of stars which slowly arrive to the suppermasive black hole on almost circular orbits by emission of gravitational waves. 

Event Organizer: Dr. Ishay Pomerantz