Related papers: Secular Dynamics around a Supermassive Black Hole …
We study the dynamics and evolution of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster performing a high resolution direct one-million-body simulation. Focusing on the interactions between such stellar system and the central supermassive black hole, we…
We present an analytical formalism to study the secular dynamics of a system consisting of N-2 planets orbiting a binary star in outer orbits. We introduce a canonical coordinate system and expand the disturbing function in terms of…
The angular momentum evolution of stars close to massive black holes (MBHs) is driven by secular torques. In contrast to two-body relaxation, where interactions between stars are incoherent, the resulting resonant relaxation (RR) process is…
We develop a simple physical model to describe the dynamics of a massive point-like object, such as a black hole, near the center of a dense stellar system. It is shown that the total force on this body can be separated into two independent…
An algorithm is described for evolving the phase-space density of stars or compact objects around a massive black hole at the center of a galaxy. The technique is based on numerical integration of the Fokker-Planck equation in…
The aim of this work is to continue the analysis, started in arXiv:2105.02108, of the dynamics of a point-mass particle $P$ moving in a galaxy with an harmonic biaxial core, in whose center sits a Keplerian attractive center (e.g. a Black…
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…
This thesis embraces several aspects of theoretical stellar dynamics in clusters, both analytically and numerically. We try to elucidate the phenomena currently observed in all types of galaxies, including AGNs and quasars, some of the most…
Massive eccentric disks (gaseous or particulate) orbiting a dominant central mass appear in many astrophysical systems, including planetary rings, protoplanetary and accretion disks in binaries, and nuclear stellar disks around supermassive…
Detailed numerical analyses of the orbital motion of a test particle around a spinning primary are performed. They aim to investigate the possibility of using the post-Keplerian (pK) corrections to the orbiter's periods (draconitic,…
To date, the most precise tests of general relativity have been achieved through pulsar timing, albeit in the weak-field regime. Since pulsars are some of the most precise and stable "clocks" in the Universe, present observational efforts…
Evolution of self-gravitating rotating dense stellar systems (e.g. globular clusters, galactic nuclei) with embedded black holes is investigated. The interaction between the black hole and stellar component in differential rotating…
The non-resonant secular dynamics of compact planetary systems are modeled by a perturbing function which is usually expanded in eccentricity and absolute inclination with respect to the invariant plane. Here, the expressions are given in a…
We have developed a novel Monte Carlo method for simulating the dynamical evolution of stellar systems in arbitrary geometry. The orbits of stars are followed in a smooth potential represented by a basis-set expansion and perturbed after…
Internal dynamical evolution can drive stellar systems into states of high central density. For many star clusters and galactic nuclei, the time scale on which this occurs is significantly less than the age of the universe. As a result,…
The S-star cluster in the Galactic center allows us to study the physics close to a supermassive black hole, including distinctive dynamical tests of general relativity. Our best estimates for the mass of and the distance to Sgr A* using…
We present spatially extended gas kinematics at parsec-scale resolution for the nuclear regions of four nearby disk galaxies, and model them as rotation of a gas disk in the joint potential of the stellar bulge and a putative central black…
The S stars orbiting the Galactic center black hole reach speeds of up to a few percent the speed of light during pericenter passage. This makes, for example, S2 at pericenter much more relativistic than known binary pulsars, and opens up…
We study the dynamics of a solar-type star orbiting around a black hole binary (BHB) in a nearly coplanar system. We present a novel effect that can prompt a growth and significant oscillations of the eccentricity of the stellar orbit when…
We investigate the (conservative) dynamics of binary black holes using the Hamiltonian formulation of the post-Newtonian (PN) equations of motion. The Hamiltonian we use includes spin-orbit coupling, spin-spin coupling, and mass…