The Inner 2 pc of Sagittarius A*: Simulations of the Circumnuclear Disk and Multiphase Gas Accretion in the Galactic Center

Abstract

The inner few parsecs of the Milky Way’s Galactic center contain the central accreting supermassive black hole, over a million stars, and multiple large gaseous structures. In the past, the structures at these length scales have generally been modeled independently of each other. It is consequently not well understood how these complex features interact with each other, nor how gas flows between the outer few parsecs and the inner subarcsecond region (1″ ≈ 0.04 pc). In this work, we present hydrodynamic simulations of the inner few parsecs of the Galactic center that, for the first time, combine a realistic treatment of stellar winds and the circumnuclear disk (CND) as they interact with the gravitational potential of the nuclear star cluster and Sagittarius A*. We observe interactions of the stellar winds with the inner edge of the CND, which leads to the growth of instabilities, induced accretion of cool gas from the inner edge of the disk, and the eventual formation of a small accretion disk of ∼10 ^4 –10 ^5 K within r ∼ 0.1 pc. The formation of an inner disk qualitatively agrees with observations. This disk grows in radial extent and mass with time on ≳10 kyr timescales, with a growth rate of $M\propto {t}_{\mathrm{kyr}}^{3.5}$ . We discuss additional physical mechanisms not yet included in this work that can improve our model.

Keywords

• Galactic center
• Galaxy circumnuclear disk
• Stellar winds