Milky Way globular clusters on cosmological timescales. II. Interaction with the Galactic centre

Aims. We estimate the dynamical evolution of the Globular Clusters interaction with the Galactic centre that dynamically changed in the past. Methods. We simulated the orbits of 147 globular clusters over 10 Gyr lookback time using the parallel N-body code phi-GPU. For each globular cluster, we generated 1000 sets of initial data with random proper motions and radial velocities based on the observed values. To distinguish globular clusters interacting with the galactic centre, we used the criterion of a relative distance of less than 100 pc. We used four external potentials from the IllustrisTNG-100 database, which were selected for their similarity to the present-day Milky Way, to simulate the structure of the Galaxy at different times. Results. We obtained 3-4 globular cluster interactions per Gyr at distances of less than 50 pc and 5-6 interactions per Gyr at distances of less than 80 pc among the studied 147 globular clusters that had close passages near the Galactic centre. We selected 10 of them for detailed study and found almost 100% probability of interaction with the Galactic centre for six of them. Conclusions. According to our results, the maximum interaction frequency of globular clusters with the Galactic centre in the Milky Way is likely to be a few dozens of passages per Gyr within a central zone of 100 pc. This low frequency may not be sufficient to fully explain the relatively high mass (of order 10^7 Msol) of the nuclear star cluster in the Milky Way, if we consider only the periodic capture of stars from globular clusters during close encounters. Therefore, we must also consider the possibility that some early globular clusters were completely tidally disrupted during interactions with the forming nuclear star cluster and the Galactic centre.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Supermassive black holes coalescence mediated by massive perturbers: implications for gravitational waves emission and nuclear cluster formation

A large fraction of galactic nuclei is expected to host supermassive black hole binaries (BHB), likely formed during the early phase of galaxies assembly and merging. In this paper, we use a large set of state-of-art numerical models to investigate the interplay between a BHB and a massive star cluster (GCs) driven toward the galactic centre by dynamical friction. Varying the BHB mass and mass ratio and the GC orbit, we show that the reciprocal feedback exerted between GCs and the BHB shapes their global properties. We show that, at GC-to-BHB mass ratios above 0.1, the GC affects notably the BHB orbital evolution, possibly boosting its coalescence. This effect is maximized if the GC moves on a retrograde orbit, and for a non-equal mass BHB. We show that the GC debris dispersed around the galactic nucleus can lead to the formation of a nuclear cluster, depending on the BHB tidal field, and that the distribution of compact remnants resulting from the GC disruption can carry information about the BHB orbital properties. We find that red giant stars delivered by the spiralling GC can be disrupted at a rate of $\simeq (0.7-7)\times 10^{-7}$ yr$^{-1}$ for BHB masses $\sim 10^7{\rm M}_\odot$, while tens to hundreds of stars can be possibly observed in the galactic halo as high-velocity stars, with velocities up to $\sim 2000$ km s$^{-1}$, depending on the BHB orbital properties.Comment: 26 pages, 27 figures, 2 tables. Resubmitted to MNRAS after minor revisio

Milky Way globular clusters on cosmological timescales. III. Interaction rates

Aims. We carry out the self-consistent dynamic evolution of the orbital structure of Milky Way globular clusters. This allows us to estimate possible and probable close passages and even collisions of the clusters with each other. Methods. We reproduced the orbits of 147 globular clusters in 10 Gyr lookback time using our own high-order N-body parallel dynamic phi-GPU code. The initial conditions (three coordinates and three velocities for the present time) were derived from the Gaia DR3 catalogue. The galaxy is represented by five external potentials from the IllustrisTNG-100, whose masses and sizes of the disk and halo components are similar to the physical values of the Milky Way at present. Results. We present a statistical analysis of the cumulative close passages rate: About ten close passages with relative distances shorter than 50 pc for every billion years for each of the five external potentials. We present the 22 most reliable collision pairs with a good probability. As an example: Terzan 4 versus Terzan 2 (49%), Terzan 4 versus NGC 6624 (44%), Terzan 4 versus Terzan 5 (40%), Terzan 4 versus NGC 6440 (40%), and Terzan 4 versus Liller 1 (42%). The most active globular cluster in the collision sense is Terzan 4, which has 5.65 collision events on average (averaged over all individual 1000 initial condition realisations). Most collisions are located inside the Galactic disk and form two ring-like structures. The first ring-like structure has the highest collision number density at 1 kpc, and the second sturcture has a maximum at 2 kpc. Conclusions. Based on our numerical simulations, we can conclude that the few dozen Milky Way globular clusters probably undergo some close encounters and even possible collisions during their lifetimes, which can significantly affect their individual dynamical evolution and possibly even their stellar content.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Supermassive black holes coalescence mediated by massive perturbers: implications for gravitational waves emission and nuclear cluster formation

A large fraction of galactic nuclei is expected to host supermassive black hole binaries (BHB), likely formed during the early phase of galaxies assembly and merging. In this paper, we use a large set of state-of-art numerical models to investigate the interplay between a BHB and a massive star cluster (GCs) driven toward the galactic centre by dynamical friction. Varying the BHB mass and mass ratio and the GC orbit, we show that the reciprocal feedback exerted between GCs and the BHB shapes their global properties. We show that, at GC-to-BHB mass ratios above 0.1, the GC affects notably the BHB orbital evolution, possibly boosting its coalescence. This effect is maximized if the GC moves on a retrograde orbit, and for a non-equal mass BHB. We show that the GC debris dispersed around the galactic nucleus can lead to the formation of a nuclear cluster, depending on the BHB tidal field, and that the distribution of compact remnants resulting from the GC disruption can carry information about the BHB orbital properties. We find that red giant stars delivered by the spiralling GC can be disrupted at a rate of ≃ (0.7 - 7) × 10-7 yr-1 for BHB masses ˜107M⊙, while tens to hundreds of stars can be possibly observed in the galactic halo as high-velocity stars, with velocities up to ˜2000 km s-1, depending on the BHB orbital properties

Milky Way globular clusters on cosmological timescales

Aims. We estimate the dynamical evolution of the interaction of globular clusters’ with the Galactic centre that dynamically changed in the past. Methods. We simulated the orbits of 147 globular clusters over a 10 Gyr lookback time using the parallel N-body code ‘φ-GPU’. For each globular cluster, we generated 1000 sets of initial data with random proper motions and radial velocities based on the observed values. To distinguish globular clusters interacting with the Galactic centre, we used the criterion of a relative distance of less than 100 pc. We used four external potentials from the IllustrisTNG-100 database, which were selected for their similarity to the present-day Milky Way, to simulate the structure of the Galaxy at different times. Results. We obtained approximately three to four globular cluster interactions per billion years at distances of less than 50 pc and approximately five to six interactions per billion years at distances of less than 80 pc among the studied 147 globular clusters that had close passages near the Galactic centre. We selected ten of them for detailed study and found almost 100% probability of an interaction with the Galactic centre for six of them. Conclusions. According to our results, the maximum interaction frequency of globular clusters with the Galactic centre in the Milky Way is likely to be a few dozens of passages per billion years within a central zone of 100 pc. This low frequency may not be sufficient to fully explain the relatively high mass (of order 107 M⊙) of the nuclear star cluster in the Milky Way if we consider only the periodic capture of stars from globular clusters during close encounters. Therefore, we must also consider the possibility that some early globular clusters were completely tidally disrupted during interactions with the forming nuclear star cluster and the Galactic centre

Merging of Unequal Mass Binary Black Holes in Non-Axisymmetric Galactic Nuclei

In this work we study the stellar-dynamical hardening of unequal mass supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries in the central regions of galactic nuclei. We present a comprehensive set of direct N-body simulations of the problem, varying both the total mass and the mass ratio of the SMBH binary (SMBHB). Simulations are carried out with the phi-GPU N-body code, which enabled us to fully exploit supercomputers equipped with graphic processing units (GPUs). We adopt initial axisymmetric, rotating models, aimed at reproducing the properties of a galactic nucleus emerging from a galaxy merger event, containing two SMBHs initially unbound. We find no "final-pc problem", as our SMBH's tend to pair and shrink without showing significant signs of stalling. This confirms earlier results and extends them to large particle numbers and for rotating systems. We find that the SMBHB hardening depends on the binary reduced mass ratio via a single parameter function. Our results suggest that, at fixed value of the SMBHB primary mass, the merger time of highly asymmetric binaries is up to four order of magnitudes smaller than equal-mass binaries. This can significantly affect the population of SMBHs potentially detectable as gravitational wave sources.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Ap

Supermassive black holes coalescence mediated by massive perturbers: implications for gravitational waves emission and nuclear cluster formation

A large fraction of galactic nuclei is expected to host supermassive black hole binaries (BHB), likely formed during the early phase of galaxies assembly and merging. In this paper, we use a large set of state-of-art numerical models to investigate the interplay between a BHB and a massive star cluster (GCs) driven toward the galactic centre by dynamical friction. Varying the BHB mass and mass ratio and the GC orbit, we show that the reciprocal feedback exerted between GCs and the BHB shapes their global properties. We show that, at GC-to-BHB mass ratios above 0.1, the GC affects notably the BHB orbital evolution, possibly boosting its coalescence. This effect is maximized if the GC moves on a retrograde orbit, and for a non-equal mass BHB. We show that the GC debris dispersed around the galactic nucleus can lead to the formation of a nuclear cluster, depending on the BHB tidal field, and that the distribution of compact remnants resulting from the GC disruption can carry information about the BHB orbital properties. We find that red giant stars delivered by the spiralling GC can be disrupted at a rate of ≃ (0.7 - 7) × 10-7 yr-1 for BHB masses ˜107M⊙, while tens to hundreds of stars can be possibly observed in the galactic halo as high-velocity stars, with velocities up to ˜2000 km s-1, depending on the BHB orbital properties

Milky Way globular clusters on cosmological timescales

Context. Recent observational data show that the Milky Way galaxy contains about 170 globular clusters. A fraction of them is likely formed in dwarf galaxies that were accreted onto the Milky Way in the past, while the remaining clusters were formed in situ. Therefore, the different parameters, including the orbits, of the globular clusters are a valuable tool for studying the Milky Way evolution. However, because the evolution of the 3D mass distribution of the Milky Way is poorly constrained, the orbits of the clusters are usually calculated in static potentials. Aims. We study the evolution of the globular clusters in several external potentials, where we aim to quantify the effects of the evolving galaxy potential on the orbits of the globular clusters. Methods. For the orbit calculation, we used five Milky Way-like potentials from the IllustrisTNG-100 simulation. The orbits of 159 globular clusters were integrated using the high-order N-body parallel dynamic code φ-GPU, with initial conditions obtained from the recent Gaia Data Release 3 catalogues. Results. We provide a classification of the globular cluster orbits according to their 3D shapes and association with different components of the Milky Way (disk, halo, and bulge). We also found that the energy – angular momentum of the globular clusters in the external potentials is roughly similarly distributed at the present time. However, neither total energy nor total angular momentum of the globular clusters are conserved due to time-varying nature of the potentials. In some extreme cases, the total energy can change up to 40% (18 objects) over the last 5 Gyr of evolution. We found that the in situ formed globular clusters are less affected by the evolution of the TNG potentials than clusters that were likely formed ex situ. Therefore, our results suggest that time-varying potentials significantly affect the orbits of the globular clusters, thus making them vital for understanding the formation of the Milky Way