Physics and Astrophysics of Star Aggregates over Multiple Space-Time scales.
| Componente | Qualifica | Struttura | Categoria |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pauline Chassonnery | MSci student | Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris Saclay (France) | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Dante Minniti | Full professor | Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago (Chile) | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Rainer Spurzem | Full professor | Astron. Rechen Inst. univ. of Heidelberg (Germany) | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Nazanin Davari | PhD graduate | PhD graduated at Dep. of Physics, Sapienza | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Riccardo Schiavi | PhD student | Sapienza/Tor Vergata joint PhD program in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Manuel Arca Sedda | Von Humboldt fellow | Astron. Rechen Inst. univ. of Heidelberg (Germany) | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Mario Spera | M. Curie fellow | CIERA, Northwestern Univ., Evanston (USA) | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
| Iskren Georgiev | Post doc researcher | MPIA, Heidelberg (Germany) | Altro personale aggregato Sapienza o esterni, titolari di borse di studio di ricerca |
Our aim is deepening the knowledge of the physics of the inner few parsecs of our Galaxy and of other galaxies.
The central regions of galaxies are very 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). Moreover, the physical conditions are extreme, so to make them exceptional natural laboratories to test physical theories.
With this project, we intend to study better the inter-relation between the central local, small, space-time scales and those , much larger, of the overall galactic environment. Actually, 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.
The existence of correlations between the inner part of a galaxy and the overall distribution is indirectly proven by the evidence of tight relations between the masses of SMBHs and the mass of the parent galaxy, as well by the evidence of a similar (although with different slope) correlation for the NSC mass and its host galaxy mass.
Moreover, observations of the so called "hyper velocity stars" (HVSs) in the Galactic halo seem to find an explanation only by mean of an acceleration mechanism caused by a central SMBH.
Our research will aim to interpretation of
i) the formation and evolution of galactic nuclei and their stellar and black hole content, ii) the possibility of formation and growth of a local SMBH by instability of a dense cluster of black holes; iii) the origin of HVSs and of the S-stars (the ones which orbit fast around the Galactic geometric center), as well as iv) check the possibility that either HVSs keep bound around them some revolving planets or they release them to the background as hypervelocity planets (HVPs).
This project is a continuation of a research driven by the applicant that in the past has produced relevant results and numerous publications at international level.