Related papers: A numerical study of vector resonant relaxation
Resonant relaxation (RR) of orbital angular momenta occurs near massive black holes (MBHs) where the stellar orbits are nearly Keplerian and so do not precess significantly. The resulting coherent torques efficiently change the magnitude of…
In recent years, ground- and space-based photometric surveys have characterized the rotational evolution of solar-like stars to an unprecedented level of detail. In this work we focus on the slow-rotator sequence, an emergent feature…
We present a first-principles theory of Resonant Relaxation (RR) of a low mass stellar system orbiting a more massive black hole (MBH). We first extend the kinetic theory of Gilbert (1968) to include the Keplerian field of a black hole of…
This paper, and its companion, investigate the evolution of dense stellar systems due to the influence of two-body gravitational encounters, physical collisions and stellar evolution. Our goal is the simulation of the densest centers of…
We report the results of simulations of dense rotating stellar systems whose members suffer collisions and undergo stellar evolution processes. The initial configuration for each experiment is an isotropic Kuzmin-Kutuzov model. The…
We study eccentric equatorial orbits of a test-body around a Kerr black hole under the influence of gravitational radiation reaction. We have adopted a well established two-step approach: assuming that the particle is moving along a…
This paper is the third in a series presenting the results of direct numerical integrations of the Fokker-Planck equation for stars orbiting a supermassive black hole (SBH) at the center of a galaxy. The algorithm of Paper II included…
Stars evolving around a supermassive black hole see their orbital orientations diffuse efficiently, a process called "vector resonant relaxation". In particular, stars within the same disc, i.e. neighbors in orientations, will slowly…
Evaporative evolution of stellar clusters is shown to be relaxation limited when the number of stars satisfies $N>>N_c$, where $N_c\simeq 1600$. For a Maxwell velocity distribution that extends beyond the escape velocity, this process is…
In galactic nuclei, the gravitational potential is dominated by the central supermassive black hole, so stars follow quasi-Keplerian orbits. These orbits are distorted by gravitational forces from other stars, leading to long-term orbital…
We derive the secular evolution of the orbital elements of a stellar-mass object orbiting a spinning massive black hole. We use the post-Newtonian approximation in harmonic coordinates, with test-body equations of motion for the…
We have developed a new simulation code aimed at studying the stellar dynamics of a galactic central star cluster surrounding a massive black hole. In order to include all the relevant physical ingredients (2-body relaxation, stellar mass…
We examine the effect of an accretion disc on the orbits of stars in the central star cluster surrounding a central massive black hole by performing a suite of 39 high-accuracy direct N-body simulations using state-of-the art software and…
Stars orbiting a supermassive black hole in the center of galaxies undergo very efficient diffusion in their orbital orientations: this is "Vector Resonant Relaxation". Such a dynamics is intrinsically non-linear, stochastic, and…
The observed mass-age-rotation relationship in open clusters shows the progressive development of a slow-rotators sequence. The observed clustering on this sequence suggests that it corresponds to some equilibrium or asymptotic condition…
Collisional relaxation describes the stochastic process with which a self-gravitating system near equilibrium evolves in phase space due to the fluctuating gravitational field of the system. The characteristic timescale of this process is…
Axisymmetric disks of eccentric Kepler orbits are vulnerable to an instability which causes orbits to exponentially grow in inclination, decrease in eccentricity, and cluster in their angle of pericenter. Geometrically, the disk expands to…
Two-body relaxation times of nuclear star clusters are short enough that gravitational encounters should substantially affect their structure in 10 Gyr or less. In nuclear star clusters without massive black holes, dynamical evolution is a…
I consider a self-gravitating, N-body system assuming that the N constituents follow regular orbits about the center of mass of the cluster, where a central massive object may be present. I calculate the average over a characteristic…
We study the evolution of star clusters on circular and eccentric orbits using direct $N$-body simulations. We model clusters with initially $N=8{\rm k}$ and $N=16{\rm k}$ single stars of the same mass, orbiting around a point-mass galaxy.…