Ricerc@Sapienza

Our aim is deepening the knowledge of the physics of the inner few parsecs of our Galaxy and of other galaxies.
Actually, the central regions of galaxies are very peculiar places, sites of exotic objects like super massive black holes (SMBHs) and very massive and dense stellar clusters (Nuclear Star Clusters, NSCs).
With this project, we intend to understand better the inter-relation between the local, small, space-time scales and those 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.
The existence of these correlations is indirectly proven by the evidence of a strong connection between the masses of SMBHs and the mass of the parent galaxy, as well by the evidence of a similar correlation for the NSC mass and the galaxy mass, although with different slope.
Moreover, observations of the so called "hyper velocity stars" (HVSs) in the Galactic halo seem to find an explanation just by mean of an acceleration mechanism caused by the central SMBH.
Our research will develop on the attempt to interpret i) the formation and evolution of galactic nuclei and their stellar and black hole content, ii) their scaling correlations with the hosting galaxy; 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 natural development of a research that has been progressing for years and that has already produced relevant results and numerous publications at international level.