The Impact of Stellar Collisions in the Galactic Center
(2011) Conference on the Galactic Center: A Window to the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies 439. p.212-221- Abstract
- We consider whether stellar collisions can explain the observed depletion of red giants in the Galactic center. We model the stellar population with two different IMFs: 1) the Miller-Scalo and 2) a much flatter IMF. In the former case, low-mass main-sequence stars dominate the population, and collisions are unable to remove red giants out to 0.4 pc although brighter red giants much closer in may be depleted via collisions with stellar-mass black holes. For a much flatter IMF, the stellar population is dominated by compact remnants (i.e. black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars). The most common collisions are then those between main-sequence stars and compact remnants. Such encounters are likely to destroy the main-sequence stars and... (More)
- We consider whether stellar collisions can explain the observed depletion of red giants in the Galactic center. We model the stellar population with two different IMFs: 1) the Miller-Scalo and 2) a much flatter IMF. In the former case, low-mass main-sequence stars dominate the population, and collisions are unable to remove red giants out to 0.4 pc although brighter red giants much closer in may be depleted via collisions with stellar-mass black holes. For a much flatter IMF, the stellar population is dominated by compact remnants (i.e. black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars). The most common collisions are then those between main-sequence stars and compact remnants. Such encounters are likely to destroy the main-sequence stars and thus prevent their evolution into red giants. In this way, the red-giant population could be depleted out to 0.4 pc matching observations. If this is the case, it implies the Galactic center contains a much larger population of stellar-mass black holes than would be expected from a regular IMF. This may in turn have implications for the formation and growth of the central supermassive black hole. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2049335
- author
- Davies, Melvyn B LU ; Church, Ross LU ; Malmberg, Daniel LU ; Nzoke Baman, Serge LU ; Dale, J. and Freitag, M.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies
- volume
- 439
- pages
- 212 - 221
- publisher
- Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP)
- conference name
- Conference on the Galactic Center: A Window to the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies
- conference location
- Shanghai, China
- conference dates
- 2009-10-19 - 2009-10-23
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000291890200040
- ISBN
- 978-1-58381-758-2
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 9e8de55e-6ce0-424d-ab87-1f0d3d831635 (old id 2049335)
- alternative location
- http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0338v2
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 12:13:04
- date last changed
- 2020-06-16 15:05:02
@inproceedings{9e8de55e-6ce0-424d-ab87-1f0d3d831635, abstract = {{We consider whether stellar collisions can explain the observed depletion of red giants in the Galactic center. We model the stellar population with two different IMFs: 1) the Miller-Scalo and 2) a much flatter IMF. In the former case, low-mass main-sequence stars dominate the population, and collisions are unable to remove red giants out to 0.4 pc although brighter red giants much closer in may be depleted via collisions with stellar-mass black holes. For a much flatter IMF, the stellar population is dominated by compact remnants (i.e. black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars). The most common collisions are then those between main-sequence stars and compact remnants. Such encounters are likely to destroy the main-sequence stars and thus prevent their evolution into red giants. In this way, the red-giant population could be depleted out to 0.4 pc matching observations. If this is the case, it implies the Galactic center contains a much larger population of stellar-mass black holes than would be expected from a regular IMF. This may in turn have implications for the formation and growth of the central supermassive black hole.}}, author = {{Davies, Melvyn B and Church, Ross and Malmberg, Daniel and Nzoke Baman, Serge and Dale, J. and Freitag, M.}}, booktitle = {{The Galactic Center: A Window on the Nuclear Environment of Disk Galaxies}}, isbn = {{978-1-58381-758-2}}, language = {{eng}}, pages = {{212--221}}, publisher = {{Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP)}}, title = {{The Impact of Stellar Collisions in the Galactic Center}}, url = {{http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0338v2}}, volume = {{439}}, year = {{2011}}, }