Ricerc@Sapienza

The physics of the inner few parsecs of our Galaxy and of other galaxies is poorly known, because of its extreme conditions.
Actually, the central regions of galaxies are peculiar places, because they are sites of exotic objects like super massive black holes (SMBHs) and very massive and dense stellar clusters (Nuclear Star Clusters, NSCs). This implies that physical conditions are extreme, to make them exceptional natural laboratories to test physical theories under conditions unreachable elsewhere.
This project aims to a deeper study of the inter-relation between the central local, small, space-time scales and those , much larger, of the overall galactic environment: galactic nuclei have sizes of ~ 10 pc and crossing times of few Myrs while galaxies extend to tens of kpc and orbital periods are Gyr long. In spite of these huge differences, there is a clear observational evidence that the characteristics and properties of the inner, dense nuclear regions of galaxies are correlated to the much wider overall structure.
In particular, it has been shown that in bright galaxies a central SMBH is almost always present, while in fainter ones is usually present a dense central NSC.

In such frame, our project aims to pursue our investigation about:
i) the formation and evolution of galactic nuclei and their stellar and black hole content, ii) the formation and growth of a local SMBH by instability of a dense cluster of intermediate mass black holes; iii) the dynamics of S-stars (those passing by the Sgr A* Galactic black hole) is influenced by the local very strong field out of the Newtonian regime; iv) the origin of the hyper velocity stars as well as iv) the possibility that either HVSs keep bound around them some revolving planets or they release them to the background as hypervelocity planets.

This project is a continuation of a research driven by the applicant that in the past has produced relevant results and numerous publications at high international level.