Related papers: Resonant Relaxation in Stellar Systems
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…
The origin of the spins of giant planets is an open question in astrophysics. As planets and stars accrete from discs, if the specific angular momentum accreted corresponds to that of a Keplerian orbit at the surface of the object, it is…
We provide the first quantitative evidence for the deceleration of the Galactic bar from local stellar kinematics in agreement with dynamical friction by a typical dark matter halo. The kinematic response of the stellar disk to a…
A massive black hole (MBH) consumes stars whose orbits evolve into the small phase-space volume of unstable orbits, the "loss-cone", which take them directly into the MBH, or close enough to interact strongly with it. The resulting…
We have performed numerical simulations of a radially perturbed "accretion" torus around a black hole or neutron star and find that the torus performs radial and vertical motions at the appropriate epicyclic frequencies. We find clear…
When an accreting star is close to rotational equilibrium between the dipole component of the stellar magnetic field and the accretion disk, the star's rotation rate is roughly of the order of the Keplerean rotation rate at the inner…
Observations of the spatial distribution and kinematics of young stars in the Galactic centre can be interpreted as showing that the stars occupy one, or possibly two, discs of radii ~0.05-0.5 pc. The most prominent (`clockwise') disc…
We have performed N-body simulations of tidally filling star clusters with a range of orbits in a Milky Way-like potential to study the effects of orbital inclination and eccentricity on their structure and evolution. At small…
Utilizing a series of N-body simulations, we argue that gravitationally bound stellar clusters of modest population evolve very differently from the picture presented by classical dynamical relaxation theory. The system's most massive stars…
We use N-body simulations to explore the influence of orbital eccentricity on the dynamical evolution of star clusters. Specifically we compare the mass loss rate, velocity dispersion, relaxation time, and the mass function of star clusters…
Gravitational interactions in very young high-density stellar clusters can to some degree change the angular momentum in the circumstellar discs surrounding initially the majority of stars. However, for most stars the cluster environment…
The angular momentum (AM) evolution of stellar interiors, along with the resulting rotation rates of stellar remnants, remains poorly understood. Asteroseismic measurements of red giant stars reveal that their cores rotate much faster than…
Close-in planetary systems detected by the Kepler mission present an excess of periods ratio that are just slightly larger than some low order resonant values. This feature occurs naturally when resonant couples undergo dissipation that…
A body dissipates energy when it freely rotates about any axis different from principal. This entails relaxation, i.e., decrease of the rotational energy, with the angular momentum preserved. The spin about the major-inertia axis…
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…
The efficiency of star formation, defined as the ratio of the stellar to total (gas and stellar) mass, is observed to vary from a few percent in regions of dispersed star formation to about a third in cluster-forming cores. This difference…
Massive black holes have been discovered in all closely examined galaxies with high velocity dispersion. The case is not as clear for lower-dispersion systems such as low-mass galaxies and globular clusters. Here we suggest that above a…
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 this paper, we propose a method to study the nature of resonant relaxation in near-Keplerian systems. Our technique is based on measuring the fractal dimension of the angular momentum trails and we use it to analyze the outcome of N-body…
It is suggested that the accretion disk excites the eigen modes of Alfven oscillations of the magnetic field tubes the ends of which are frozen to the neutron star surface. The resonance takes place when the eigen Alfven frequency coincides…