2003/04/01 by Stephen L. W. McMillan, Steve McMillan, Simon Portegies Zwart · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cluster (spacecraft) #Galactic Center #Galactic plane #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Physics #Spiral galaxy #Star cluster #Star formation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/377577
published as Astrophys.J. 596 (2003) 314-322 · 16 pages, submitted to ApJ
arxiv created 2003/04/01 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2020/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A star cluster in a galactic nucleus sinks toward the galactic center because of dynamical friction. As it spirals inward, the cluster loses mass through stellar evolution, relaxation driven evaporation, and tidal stripping, eventually dissolving in the galactic tidal field. We model the in-spiral of dense young star clusters near the center of our Galaxy to study the extent of the region of parameter space in which the cluster can reach the inner parsec of the Galaxy within a few million years. Since we neglect changes in cluster structure due to internal evolution, the present study is most applicable to star clusters less than about one initial relaxation time old. We find that only star clusters with initial masses ≳10 5 M ☉ can reach the Galactic center from an initial distance of ≳60 pc within one initial relaxation time or a few million years, whichever is smaller.