The warped young stellar disc in the Galactic Centre

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the gravitational influence of a molecular torus near the Galactic Centre causes warping of the young stellar disc, constraining the torus's properties and suggesting a common origin for the young stars.

Contribution

It provides an analytical model for the precession of stellar orbits due to the molecular torus and constrains the torus's mass and inclination based on the disc's stability.

Findings

The stellar disc's warping can be explained by the torus's gravitational influence.

Constraints on the torus's mass and inclination are derived from stability considerations.

A common origin for the young stars is proposed, with a warped structure caused by the torus.

Abstract

Within the central parsec of the Galaxy, several tens of young stars orbiting a central supermassive black hole are observed. A subset of these stars forms a coherently rotating disc. Other observations reveal a massive molecular torus which lies at a radius ~1.5pc from the centre. In this paper we consider the gravitational influence of the molecular torus upon the stars of the stellar disc. We derive an analytical formula for the rate of precession of individual stellar orbits and we show that it is highly sensitive upon the orbital semi-major axis and inclination with respect to the plane of the torus as well as on the mass of the torus. Assuming that both the stellar disc and the molecular torus are stable on the time-scale >6Myr, we constrain the mass of the torus and its inclination with respect to the young stellar disc. We further suggest that all young stars observed in the Galactic Centre may have a common origin in a single coherently rotating structure with an opening angle <5deg, which was partially destroyed (warped) during its lifetime by the gravitational influence of the molecular torus.