Key questions about Galactic Center dynamics

TL;DR

This paper reviews four fundamental questions about the dynamics at the Galactic Center, exploring the environment of the massive black hole and implications for galactic nuclei, highlighting current understanding and progress.

Contribution

It synthesizes current knowledge on key dynamical questions at the Galactic Center, emphasizing their implications and recent advances.

Findings

The stellar system around the MBH may not be fully relaxed.

Evidence for a dark cusp remains inconclusive.

The origins of stellar disks and S-stars are still debated.

Abstract

I discuss four key questions about Galactic Center dynamics, their implications for understanding both the environment of the Galactic MBH and galactic nuclei in general, and the progress made in addressing them. The questions are (1) Is the stellar system around the MBH relaxed? (2) Is there a "dark cusp" around the MBH? (3) What is the origin of the stellar disk(s)?, and (4) What is the origin of the S-stars?