The Galactic Center He I Stars: Remains of a Dissolved Young Cluster?

Ortwin Gerhard

Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel, Venusstrasse 7, CH-4102 Binningen, Switzerland

Paper: ApJ Letters, submitted

EPrint Server: astro-ph/0005096


Abstract:

A massive young star cluster embedded in its parent molecular cloud will spiral into the Galactic Center from 30 pc during the life-time of its most massive stars, if the combined total mass is 106 Mo. On its way inwards the system loses most of its mass to the strong tidal field, until the dense cluster core of high-mass stars is finally disrupted by the central black hole. A simple model is presented to argue that this scenario may under plausible conditions explain the observed location and rotation of the Galactic Center HeI stars. Accretion of star clusters into the Galactic Center could be recurrent, and play an important role in regulating the activity of Sgr A*.


Preprints available from the authors at Ortwin.Gerhard@unibas.ch , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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