On the Orbital Effects of Stellar Collisions in Galactic Nuclei: Tidal Disruption Events and Ejected Stars

Abstract

Dense stellar clusters surround the supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. Interactions within the cluster can alter the stellar orbits, occasionally driving a star into the SMBH’s tidal radius, where it becomes ruptured, or expelling a star from the nuclear cluster. This proof-of-concept study examines the orbital effects of stellar collisions using a semianalytic model. Both low- and high-speed collisions occur in the SMBH’s sphere of influence. We find that collisions can place stars on nearly radial orbits. Depositing stars within the tidal radius, collisions may drive the disruption of stars with unusual masses and structures: depending on the nature of the collision, the star could be the product of a recent merger, or it could have lost its outer layers in a previous high-speed impact, appearing as a stripped star. We also find that high-speed collisions near the periapsis of an eccentric orbit can unbind stars from the SMBH. However, dissipation during these high-speed collisions can substantially reduce the number of unbound stars achieved in our simulations. We conclude that tidal disruption events and ejected stars, even in the hypervelocity regime, are plausible outcomes of stellar collisions, though their frequency in a three-dimensional nuclear star cluster is uncertain. Future work will address the rates and properties of these events.

Keywords

• Stellar dynamics
• Galactic center
• Star clusters
• Stellar mergers
• Tidal disruption