Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Mar 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009a%26a...496..695s&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 496, Issue 3, 2009, pp.695-699
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
6
Stellar Dynamics, Galaxy: Nucleus
Scientific paper
Aims: Within the central parsec of the Galaxy, several dozen young stars orbiting a central supermassive black hole are observed. A subset of these stars forms a coherently rotating disc. Other observations reveal a massive molecular torus that lies at a radius ~1.5~pc from the centre. In this paper we consider the gravitational influence of the molecular torus upon the stars of the stellar disc. Methods: We derive an analytical formula for the rate of precession of individual stellar orbits and we show that it is highly sensitive to the orbital semi-major axis and inclination with respect to the plane of the torus, as well as to the mass of the torus. Results: Assuming that both the stellar disc and the molecular torus are stable on the timescale ≳6~Myr, we constrain the mass of the torus and its inclination with respect to the young stellar disc. We further suggest that all young stars observed in the Galactic centre may have a common origin in a single coherently rotating structure with an opening angle ≲5°, which was partially destroyed (warped) during its lifetime by the gravitational influence of the molecular torus.
Kroupa Pavel
Schovancova Jaroslava
Subr Ladislav
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