2007/12/31 by Hagai B. Perets
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/690/1/795
published as Astrophys.J.690:795-801,2009 · 7 pages, 2 figures. Conclusions strengthened, accepted to ApJ
arxiv created 2008/09/10 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
In recent years, several hypervelocity stars (HVSs) have been observed in the halo of our Galaxy. Such stars are thought to be ejected through dynamical interactions near the massive black hole (MBH) in the Galactic center (GC). Three scenarios have been suggested for their ejection: binary disruption by an MBH, scattering by inspiraling intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) and scattering by stellar black holes (SBHs) close to MBH. These scenarios involve different stellar populations in the GC. Here we use observations of the GC stellar population together with dynamical and evolutionary arguments to obtain strong constraints on the nature and origin of HVSs. We show that the IMBH inspiral scenario requires too many ) main-sequence B stars to exist close to the MBH (<0.01 pc) at the time of inspiral, where current observations show such stars. Scattering by SBHs also require too many B stars to be observed in the GC, but may contribute a small fraction of the currently observed HVSs. The binary disruption scenario is still consistent with current observations. In addition, it is shown that recently suggested signatures for HVSs origin such as hypervelocity binaries and slow rotating HVSs are much weaker than suggested and require too large statistics. In addition, we show that due to the conditions close to the MBH most binary star systems are not expected to survive for long in this region. Consequently, unique stellar populations that require long evolution in binaries are not expected to be ejected as HVSs in the SBHs scattering mechanisms (this may also be related to the recently observed asymmetry in the velocity distribution of HVSs).