The properties of dynamically ejected runaway and hyper-runaway stars

Runaway stars are stars observed to have large peculiar velocities. Two mechanisms are thought to contribute to the ejection of runaway stars, both involve binarity (or higher multiplicity). In the binary supernova scenario a runaway star receives its velocity when its binary massive companion explodes as a supernova (SN). In the alternative dynamical ejection scenario, runaway stars are formed through gravitational interactions between stars and binaries in dense, compact clusters or cluster cores. Here we study the ejection scenario. We make use of extensive N-body simulations of massive clusters, as well as analytic arguments, in order to to characterize the expected ejection velocity distribution of runaways stars. We find the ejection velocity distribution of the fastest runaways (>~80 km s^-1) depends on the binary distribution in the cluster, consistent with our analytic toy model, whereas the distribution of lower velocity runaways appears independent of the binaries properties. For a realistic log constant distribution of binary separations, we find the velocity distribution to follow a simple power law; Gamma(v) goes like v^(-8/3) for the high velocity runaways and v^(-3/2) for the low velocity ones. We calculate the total expected ejection rates of runaway stars from our simulated massive clusters and explore their mass function and their binarity. The mass function of runaway stars is biased towards high masses, and depends strongly on their velocity. The binarity of runaways is a decreasing function of their ejection velocity, with no binaries expected to be ejected with v>150 km s^-1. We also find that hyper-runaways with velocities of hundreds of km s^-1 can be dynamically ejected from stellar clusters, but only at very low rates, which cannot account for a significant fraction of the observed population of hyper-velocity stars in the Galactic halo.Comment: Now matching published ApJ versio

Dynamical constraints on the origin of the young B-stars in the Galactic center

Regular star formation is thought to be inhibited close to the massive black hole (MBH) in the Galactic center. Nevertheless, tens of young main sequence B stars have been observed in an isotropic distribution close to it. Various models have been suggested for the formation of the B-stars closest to the MBH (<0.05 pc; the S-stars), typically involving the migration of these stars from their original birthplace to their currently observed position. Here we explore the orbital phase space distribution of the B-stars throughout the central pc expected from the various suggested models for the origin of the B-stars. We find that most of these models have difficulties in explaining, by themselves, both the population of the S-stars (<0.05 pc), and the population of the young B-stars further away (up to 0.5 pc). Most models grossly over-predict the number of B-stars up to 0.5 pc, given the observed number of S-stars. Such models include the intermediate-mass black hole assisted cluster inspiral scenario, Kozai-like perturbations by two disks, spiral density waves migration in a gaseous disk, and some of the eccentric disk instability models. We focus on one of the other models, the massive perturber induced binary disruption, which is consistent with both the S-stars and the extended population of B-stars further away. For this model we use analytical arguments and N-body simulations to provide further observational predictions. These could be compared with future observations to further support this model, constrain it or refute it. These predictions include the radial distribution of the young B-stars, their eccentricity distribution and its dependence on distance from the MBH (higher eccentricities at larger distances from the MBH), as well as less specific expectations regarding their mass function.Comment: Comments are welcome

Hyper Velocity Stars and the Restricted Parabolic 3-body Problem

Motivated by detections of hypervelocity stars that may originate from the Galactic Center, we revist the problem of a binary disruption by a passage near a much more massive point mass. The six order of magnitude mass ratio between the Galactic Center black hole and the binary stars allows us to formulate the problem in the restricted parabolic three-body approximation. In this framework, results can be simply rescaled in terms of binary masses, its initial separation and binary-to-black hole mass ratio. Consequently, an advantage over the full three-body calculation is that a much smaller set of simulations is needed to explore the relevant parameter space. Contrary to previous claims, we show that, upon binary disruption, the lighter star does not remain preferentially bound to the black hole. In fact, it is ejected exactly in 50% of the cases. Nonetheless, lighter objects have higher ejection velocities, since the energy distribution is independent of mass. Focusing on the planar case, we provide the probability distributions for disruption of circular binaries and for the ejection energy. We show that even binaries that penetrate deeply into the tidal sphere of the black hole are not doomed to disruption, but survive in 20% of the cases. Nor do these deep encounters produce the highest ejection energies, which are instead obtained for binaries arriving to 0.1-0.5 of the tidal radius in a prograde orbit. Interestingly, such deep-reaching binaries separate widely after penetrating the tidal radius, but always approach each other again on their way out from the black hole.[shortened]Comment: 10 pages, 10 Figures, Apj submitte

Tidal breakup of binary stars at the Galactic Center. II. Hydrodynamic simulations

In Paper I, we followed the evolution of binary stars as they orbited near the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic center, noting the cases in which the two stars would come close enough together to collide. In this paper we replace the point-mass stars by fluid realizations, and use a smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code to follow the close interactions. We model the binary components as main-sequence stars with initial masses of 1, 3 and 6 Solar masses, and with chemical composition profiles taken from stellar evolution codes. Outcomes of the close interactions include mergers, collisions that leave both stars intact, and ejection of one star at high velocity accompanied by capture of the other star into a tight orbit around the SMBH. For the first time, we follow the evolution of the collision products for many ($\gtrsim 100$) orbits around the SMBH. Stars that are initially too small to be tidally disrupted by the SMBH can be puffed up by close encounters or collisions, with the result that tidal stripping occurs in subsequent periapse passages. In these cases, mass loss occurs episodically, sometimes for hundreds of orbits before the star is completely disrupted. Repeated tidal flares, of either increasing or decreasing intensity, are a predicted consequence. In collisions involving a low-mass and a high-mass star, the merger product acquires a high core hydrogen abundance from the smaller star, effectively resetting the nuclear evolution "clock" to a younger age. Elements like Li, Be and B that can exist only in the outermost envelope of a star are severely depleted due to envelope ejection during collisions and due to tidal forces from the SMBH. In the absence of collisions, tidal spin-up of stars is only important in a narrow range of periapse distances, $r_t/2\lesssim r_per \lesssim r_t$ with $r_t$ the tidal disruption radius.Comment: ApJ accepted, 22 pages, 19 figures. Version with high-resolution figures, and additional animations, available at this url: http://astrophysics.rit.edu/fantonini/tbbs2

Perturbations of Intermediate-mass Black Holes on Stellar Orbits in the Galactic Center

We study the short- and long-term effects of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) on the orbits of stars bound to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the Milky Way. A regularized N-body code including post-Newtonian terms is used to carry out direct integrations of 19 stars in the S-star cluster for 10 Myr. The mass of the IMBH is assigned one of four values from 400 Msun to 4000 Msun, and its initial semi-major axis with respect to the SMBH is varied from 0.3-30 mpc, bracketing the radii at which inspiral of the IMBH is expected to stall. We consider two values for the eccentricity of the IMBH/SMBH binary, e=(0,0.7), and 12 values for the orientation of the binary's plane. Changes at the level of 1% in the orbital elements of the S-stars could occur in just a few years if the IMBH is sufficiently massive. On time scales of 1 Myr or longer, the IMBH efficiently randomizes the eccentricities and orbital inclinations of the S-stars. Kozai oscillations are observed when the IMBH lies well outside the orbits of the stars. Perturbations from the IMBH can eject stars from the cluster, producing hypervelocity stars, and can also scatter stars into the SMBH; stars with high initial eccentricities are most likely to be affected in both cases. The distribution of S-star orbital elements is significantly altered from its currently-observed form by IMBHs with masses greater than 1000 Msun if the IMBH/SMBH semi-major axis lies in the range 3-10 mpc. We use these results to further constrain the allowed parameters of an IMBH/SMBH binary at the Galactic center.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, revised versio

The spatial and velocity distributions of hypervelocity stars

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) found in the Galactic halo are probably the dynamical products of interactions between (binary) stars and the massive black hole(s) (MBH) in the Galactic center (GC). It has been shown that the detected HVSs are spatially consistent with being located on two thin disks (Lu et al.), one of which has the same orientation as the clockwise-rotating stellar disk in the GC. Here we perform a large number of three-body experiments of the interactions between the MBH and binary stars bound to it, and find that the probability of ejecting HVSs is substantially enhanced by multiple encounters between the MBH and binary stars at distances substantially larger than the initial tidal breakup radii. Assuming that the HVS progenitors are originated from the two disks, the inclination distribution of the HVSs relative to the disk planes can be reproduced by either the mechanism of tidal breakup of binary stars or the mechanism of ejecting HVSs by a hypothetical binary black hole (BBH) in the GC. However, an isotropical origination of HVS progenitors is inconsistent with the observed inclination distribution. Assuming that the HVSs were ejected out by the tidal breakup mechanism, its velocity distribution can be reproduced if their progenitors diffuse onto low angular momentum orbits slowly and most of the progenitors were broken up at relatively large distances due to multiple encounters. Assuming that the HVSs were ejected out by a BBH within the allowed parameter space in the GC, our simulations produce relatively flatter velocity spectra compared to the observed ones; however, the BBH mechanism cannot be statistically ruled out, yet. Future surveys of HVSs and better statistics of their spatial and velocity distributions should enable to distinguish the ejection mechanisms of HVSs and shed new light on the dynamical environment of the MBH.(abridged)Comment: 19 pages, 16 figure

Metal-poor hypervelocity star candidates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Hypervelocity stars are believed to be ejected out from the Galactic center through dynamical interactions of (binary) stars with the central massive black hole(s). In this letter, we report 13 metal-poor F-type hypervelocity star candidates selected from 370,000 stars of the data release 7 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With a detailed analysis of the kinematics of these stars, we find that seven of them were likely ejected from the Galactic center (GC) or the Galactic disk, four neither originated from the GC nor the Galactic disk, and the other two were possibly ejected from either the Galactic disk or other regions. Those candidates which unlikely originated from the GC or the Galactic disk, may be explained by other mechanisms, like the tidal disruption of the Milky Way's dwarf galaxies in the Galactic potential, or the gravitational interactions with a massive black hole at the center of M31 or M32

Tidal break-up of binary stars at the Galactic center and its consequences

The tidal breakup of binary star systems by the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the center of the galaxy has been suggested as the source of both the observed sample of hypervelocity stars (HVSs) in the halo of the Galaxy and the S-stars that remain in tight orbits around Sgr A*. Here, we use a post-Newtonian N-body code to study the dynamics of main-sequence binaries on highly elliptical bound orbits whose periapses lie close to the SMBH, determining the properties of ejected and bound stars as well as collision products. Unlike previous studies, we follow binaries that remain bound for several revolutions around the SMBH, finding that in the case of relatively large periapses and highly inclined binaries the Kozai resonance can lead to large periodic oscillations in the internal binary eccentricity and inclination. Collisions and mergers of the binary elements are found to increase significantly for multiple orbits around the SMBH, while HVSs are primarily produced during a binary's first passage. This process can lead to stellar coalescence and eventually serve as an important source of young stars at the galactic center.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Hypervelocity Planets and Transits Around Hypervelocity Stars

The disruption of a binary star system by the massive black hole at the Galactic Centre, SgrA*, can lead to the capture of one star around SgrA* and the ejection of its companion as a hypervelocity star (HVS). We consider the possibility that these stars may have planets and study the dynamics of these planets. Using a direct $N$-body integration code, we simulated a large number of different binary orbits around SgrA*. For some orbital parameters, a planet is ejected at a high speed. In other instances, a HVS is ejected with one or more planets orbiting around it. In these cases, it may be possible to observe the planet as it transits the face of the star. A planet may also collide with its host star. In such cases the atmosphere of the star will be enriched with metals. In other cases, a planet is tidally disrupted by SgrA*, leading to a bright flare.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

MMT Hypervelocity Star Survey. II. Five New Unbound Stars

We present the discovery of five new unbound hypervelocity stars (HVSs) in the outer Milky Way halo. Using a conservative estimate of Galactic escape velocity, our targeted spectroscopic survey has now identified 16 unbound HVSs as well as a comparable number of HVSs ejected on bound trajectories. A Galactic center origin for the HVSs is supported by their unbound velocities, the observed number of unbound stars, their stellar nature, their ejection time distribution, and their Galactic latitude and longitude distribution. Other proposed origins for the unbound HVSs, such as runaway ejections from the disk or dwarf galaxy tidal debris, cannot be reconciled with the observations. An intriguing result is the spatial anisotropy of HVSs on the sky, which possibly reflects an anisotropic potential in the central 10-100 pc region of the Galaxy. Further progress requires measurement of the spatial distribution of HVSs over the southern sky. Our survey also identifies seven B supergiants associated with known star-forming galaxies; the absence of B supergiants elsewhere in the survey implies there are no new star-forming galaxies in our survey footprint to a depth of 1-2 Mpc.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to Ap