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Gravitational loss-cone instability in stellar clusters around massive black holes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

Evgeny V. Polyachenko
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy RAS, Moscow, Russia email: [email protected]
Valerij L. Polyachenko
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy RAS, Moscow, Russia email: [email protected]
Ilia G. Shukhman
Affiliation:
Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, RAS SB, Irkutsk, Russia email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Stability of spherical and thin disk stellar clusters surrounding massive black holes are studied. Due to the black hole, stars with sufficiently low angular momenta escape from the system through the loss cone. We show that stability of spherical clusters crucially depend on whether the distribution of stars is monotonic or non-monotonic in angular momentum. It turns out that only non-monotonic distributions can be unstable. At the same time the instability in disk clusters is possible for both types of distributions.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

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