Secular stellar dynamics near massive black holes

Madigan, A.M. (2012)

Doctoral Thesis

Stars near massive black holes move on elliptical orbits which precess slowly, exerting persistent gravitational torques on each other. In this the- sis we present four important consequences of these gravitational torques: 1) A new instability which exposes the inherently unstable nature of ec- centric stellar disks in galactic nuclei, 2) A density depression of stars near massive black holes due to enhanced angular momentum relaxation and tidal disruptions, 3) A signature of high-eccentricity orbits for stars formed by Hills__ mechanism at large radii from the massive black hole, and a directly-observable statistic that can highlight these populations, and 4) A new dynamical process which we call "secular dynamical anti-friction" which boosts the orbital eccentricity of hypothesized intermediate-mass black holes as they spiral into massive black holes

• Stellar dynamics
• N-body simulations
• Galaxy: center
• Celestial mechanics
• Black hole physics

• All authors: Madigan, A.M.
• Supervisor: Kuijken, K.
• Co-supervisor: Levin, Y.; Hopman, C.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Science, Leiden University
• Date: 2012-02-16
• ISBN (print): 9789461911452