Binary stars in the Milky Way nuclear stellar cluster
Arn Marklund, Ross P. Church, Alessandro A. Trani

TL;DR
This study uses simulations to explore the evolution, migration, and outcomes of binary stars in the Milky Way's nuclear stellar cluster, revealing their potential roles in stellar phenomena and cluster dynamics.
Contribution
It provides the first detailed simulation-based analysis of binary star evolution, migration, and merger outcomes in the Milky Way's nuclear stellar cluster.
Findings
Approximately 0.3% of evaporated binaries fall into the SMBH's loss cone.
At least 1% of mergers produce blue straggler stars or red giants.
About 1% of binaries at 0.1 pc merge within the inner arcsec.
Abstract
Intermediate-mass galaxies, including the Milky Way, typically host both a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and a nuclear stellar cluster (NSC). Binaries in an NSC evolve via close encounters with surrounding stars and secular processes related to the SMBH. We study moderately soft and hard binaries (-, ) initially at galactocentric radii 0.1 and 0.3 pc using three-body simulations including von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai oscillations and tidal dissipation over Gyr. Binaries migrate both inward and outward as a consequence of kicks received in the three-body encounters. Inward migration leads to destruction via mergers and evaporation, while outward migration is a pathway to retaining intact binaries for Gyr. All surviving binaries are hard and circular, but outcomes for binaries initially at the hard-soft boundary are…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsStellar, planetary, and galactic studies · Astro and Planetary Science · Astronomical and nuclear sciences
