Stellar disc -- dynamical evolution in a perturbed potential

TL;DR

This paper proposes that all young stars in the Galactic Centre originated from a single thin stellar disc, with outliers resulting from gravitational interactions stripping stars from the disc.

Contribution

It introduces a model where a single stellar disc accounts for all young stars in the GC, challenging previous multi-cloud formation scenarios.

Findings

A single stellar disc can produce all observed young stars in the GC.

Outliers are explained as stars stripped by gravitational interactions.

The model aligns with observed stellar distributions in the GC.

Abstract

Models of the origin of young stars in the Galactic Centre are facing various problems. The most promissing scenario of the star formation in a thin self-gravitating disc naturally forms stars on coherently rotating orbits, but it fails to explain origin of several tens of stars that evidently do not belong to any of the disc-like structures in the GC. One possible solution lies in rather complicated initial conditions, assuming at least two infalling and interacting gas clouds. We present alternative solution showing that a single thin stellar disc may have given birth to all young stars in the GC. The outliers are explained as stars that have been stripped from the parent structure due to the gravitational interaction with the gaseous circum-nuclear disc.