Getting a kick out of the stellar disk(s) in the galactic center
Abstract
Recent observations of the Galactic center revealed a nuclear disk of young OB stars, in addition to many similar outlying stars with higher eccentricities and/or high inclinations relative to the disk (some of them possibly belonging to a second disk). Binaries in such nuclear disks, if they exist in non-negligible fractions, could have a major role in the evolution of the disks through binary heating of this stellar system. We suggest that interactions with/in binaries may explain some (or all) of the observed outlying young stars in the Galactic center. Such stars could have been formed in a disk, and later on kicked out from it through binary related interactions, similar to ejection of high velocity runaway OB stars in young clusters throughout the galaxy.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0710.0139,
title = {Getting a kick out of the stellar disk(s) in the galactic center},
author = {Hagai B. Perets and Gabor Kupi and Tal Alexander},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.0139},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
2 pages, 2 figs. To be published in the proceedings of the IAU 246 symposium on "Dynamical evolution of dense stellar systems"