Related papers: The loss cone problem in axisymmetric nuclei
Some of the mass that feeds the growth of a massive black hole (BH) in a galactic center is supplied by tidal disruption of stars that approach it on unbound, low angular momentum orbits. For each star that is disrupted, others narrowly…
Gravitational torques among objects orbiting a supermassive black hole drive the rapid reorientation of orbital planes in nuclear star clusters (NSCs), a process known as vector resonant relaxation. In this Letter, we determine the…
The region around the center of our Galaxy is very dense of stars. The kinematics of inner moving stars in the Galaxy (the so called S-stars) has been deeply studied by different research groups leading to the conclusion of the existence of…
The relaxed distribution of stars around a massive black hole is known to follow a cusp profile $\rho(r)\propto r^{-\alpha}$ with characteristic slope $\alpha=7/4$. This follows from energy conservation and a scattering rate as given by two…
Interaction of a binary supermassive black hole with stars in a galactic nucleus can result in changes to all the elements of the binary's orbit, including the angles that define its orientation. If the nucleus is rotating, the orientation…
Black holes are a paradigm in nowadays physics, and are expected to be hosted at the center of galaxies. Supermassive galactic black holes are not isolated, and their surroundings play crucial roles in many observational features. The…
The tidal breakup of binary star systems by the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the center of the galaxy has been suggested as the source of both the observed sample of hypervelocity stars (HVSs) in the halo of the Galaxy and the S-stars…
The centers of most known galaxies host supermassive black holes (SMBHs). In orbit around these black holes are a centrally-concentrated distribution of stars, both in single and in binary systems. Occasionally, these stars are perturbed…
The dynamics of stars in the inner regions of nearby globular clusters (GCs) such as G1 indicate the presence of central concentrated dark masses, and one would like to know whether these are indeed intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). As…
We study spherical and disk clusters in a near-Keplerian potential of galactic centers or massive black holes. In such a potential orbit precession is commonly retrograde, i.e. direction of the orbit precession is opposite to the orbital…
Massive black hole binaries (BHBs) are expected to form as the result of galaxy mergers; they shrink via dynamical friction and stellar scatterings, until gravitational waves (GWs) bring them to the final coalescence. It has been argued…
We study the Resonant Relaxation (RR) of an axisymmetric low mass (or Keplerian) stellar disc orbiting a more massive black hole (MBH). Our recent work on the general kinetic theory of RR is simplified in the standard manner by ignoring the…
A gap in phase-space, the loss cone (LC), is opened up by a supermassive black hole (MBH) as it disrupts or accretes stars in a galactic centre. If a star enters the LC then, depending on its properties, its interaction with the MBH will…
In galactic centers, stars and binaries can be injected into low-angular-momentum orbits, resulting in close encounters with the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Previous works have shown that under different conditions, such close…
The centers of galaxies host a supermassive black hole surrounded by a dense stellar cluster. The cluster is expected to develop mass segregation, in which gravitational scatterings among the stars cause heavier objects to sink closer to…
Binary systems of black holes emit gravitational waves as they move through their orbits. While most of the emitted radiation escapes to future null infinity, a small fraction is absorbed by the black holes themselves. This is known as…
The young stars near the supermassive black hole at the galactic center follow orbits that are nearly random in orientation and that have an approximately thermal distribution of eccentricities, N(e) ~ e. We show that both of these…
The fraction of primordial black holes (PBHs) of masses $10^{17} - 10^{26}$ g in the total amount of dark matter may be constrained by considering their capture by neutron stars (NSs), which leads to the rapid destruction of the latter. The…
Supermassive black holes containing ~0.5% of the stellar mass of their host galaxies appear to be ubiquitous components of galactic nuclei. The gravitational force from these central singularities can influence the motion of stars far…
We study the probability of close encounters between stars from a nuclear cluster and a massive black hole. The gravitational field of the system is dominated by the black hole in its sphere of influence. It is further modified by the…