Dr Tjarda Boekholt

Abstract:

Observations of the Orion A integral shaped filament (ISF) have shown indications of an oscillatory motion of the gas filament. This evidence is based on both thewave-likemorphology of the filament and the kinematics of the gas and stars, where the characteristic velocities of the stars require a dynamical heating mechanism. As proposed by Stutz & Gould, such a heating mechanism (the 'Slingshot') may be the result of an oscillating gas filament in a gas-dominated (as opposed to stellar-mass dominated) system. Here we test this hypothesis with the first stellar-dynamical simulations in which the stars are subjected to the influence of an oscillating cylindrical potential. The accelerating, cylindrical background potential is populated with a narrow distribution of stars. By coupling the potential to N-body dynamics, we are able to measure the influence of the potential on the stellar distribution. The simulations provide evidence that the slingshot mechanism can successfully reproduce several stringent observational constraints. These include the stellar spread (both in projected position and in velocity) around the filament, the symmetry in these distributions, and a bulkmotion of the stars with respect to the filament. Using simple considerations, we show that star-star interactions are incapable of reproducing these spreads on their own when properly accounting for the gas potential. Thus, properly accounting for the gas potential is essential for understanding the dynamical evolution of star-forming filamentary systems in the era of Gaia (GaiaCollaboration 2016).

Abstract:

The centre of the Galaxy harbours a supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, which is surrounded by a massive star cluster known as the S-cluster. The most extensively studied star in this cluster is the B-type main-sequence S2 star (also known as S0-2). These types of stars are commonly found in binary systems in the Galactic field, but observations do not seem to detect a companion to S2. This absence may be attributed to observational biases or to a dynamically hostile environment caused by phenomena such as tidal disruption or mergers. Using a N-body code with first-order post-Newtonian corrections, we investigate whether S2 can host a stellar or planetary companion. We perform 10⁵ simulations adopting uniform distributions for the orbital elements of the companion. Our results show that companions may exist for orbital periods shorter than 100 days, eccentricities below 0.8, and across the full range of mutual inclinations. The number of surviving companions increases with shorter orbital periods, lower eccentricities, and nearly coplanar orbits. We also find that the disruption mechanisms include mergers driven by Lidov–Kozai cycles and breakups that occur when the companion surpasses the Hill radius of its orbit. Finally, we find that the presence of a companion would alter S2’s astrometric signal by no more than 5 μas. Current radial-velocity detection limits constrain viable stellar binary configurations to approximately 4.4% of the simulated cases. Including astrometric limits reduces to 4.3%. Imposing an additional constraint that any companion must have a mass ≲2 M ⊙ (otherwise it would be visible) narrows the fraction of undetectable stellar binaries to just 3.0%.

Abstract:

Within hierarchical triple stellar systems, there exists a tidal process unique to them, known as tertiary tides. In this process, the tidal deformation of a tertiary in a hierarchical triple drains energy from the inner binary, causing the inner binary’s orbit to shrink. Previous work has uncovered the rate at which tertiary tides drain energy from inner binaries, as a function of orbital and tidal parameters, for hierarchical triples in which the orbits are all circular and coplanar. However, not all hierarchical triples have orbits which are circular and coplanar, which requires an understanding of what happens when this condition is relaxed. In this paper, we study how eccentricities affect tertiary tides, and their influence on the subsequent dynamical evolution of the host hierarchical triple. We find that eccentricities in the outer orbit undergo tidal circularization as quickly as binary tidal synchronization, and are therefore trivial, but that eccentricities in the inner binary completely change the behaviour of tertiary tides, draining energy from the outer orbit as well as the inner orbit. As with the circular orbit case, tertiary tides become significant when the tertiary is large enough to come close to filling its Roche Lobe, and dominate tidal evolution when interactions between the inner binary pair are weak. Empirical equations that approximate this behaviour are provided for ease of implementing this process in other stellar evolution codes, and the implications of these results are discussed.