English

Dynamics of galactic nuclei: Mass segregation and collisions

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

Massive black holes (MBHs) with a mass below ~ 1e7 Msun are likely to reside at the centre of dense stellar nuclei shaped by 2-body relaxation, close interactions with the MBH and direct collisions. In this contribution, we stress the role of mass segregation of stellar-mass black holes into the innermost tenths of a parsec and point to the importance of hydrodynamical collisions between stars. At the Galactic centre, collisions must affect giant stars and some of the S-stars.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.0490,
  title  = {Dynamics of galactic nuclei: Mass segregation and collisions},
  author = {Marc Freitag and James E. Dale and Ross P. Church and Melvyn B. Davies},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.0490},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 245, "Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges"

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:25:11.337Z