Galactic Center Minispiral: Interaction Modes of Neutron Stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how neutron stars interact with the ionized gas streams of the Galactic Center Minispiral, exploring different regimes and potential observational signatures, with implications for other galactic nuclei.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for understanding the interaction modes of magnetized neutron stars with the Minispiral's gaseous medium in the Galactic Center.

Findings

Different interaction regimes are identified based on neutron star properties and gas conditions.

Simulation results suggest observable effects for certain neutron star interaction modes.

The framework can be applied to other galactic nuclei with nuclear star clusters.

Abstract

Streams of gas and dust in the inner parsec of the Galactic center form a distinct feature known as the Minispiral, which has been studied in radio waveband as well as in the infrared wavebands. A large fraction of the Minispiral gas is ionized by radiation of OB stars present in the Nuclear Star Cluster (NSC). Based on the inferred mass in the innermost parsec ($\sim 10^6$ solar masses), over $\sim 10^3$ -- $10^4$ neutron stars should move in the sphere of gravitational influence of the SMBH. We estimate that a fraction of them propagate through the denser, ionized medium concentrated mainly along the three arms of the Minispiral. Based on the properties of the gaseous medium, we discuss different interaction regimes of magnetised neutron stars passing through this region. Moreover, we sketch expected observational effects of these regimes. The simulation results may be applied to other galactic nuclei hosting NSC, where the expected distribution of the interaction regimes is different across different galaxy types.