Star-disc interactions in a galactic centre and oblateness of the inner stellar cluster

Abstract

The structure of a quasi-stationary stellar cluster is modelled assuming that it is embedded in the gravitational field of a supermassive black hole. The gradual orbital decay of stellar trajectories is caused by the dissipative interaction with an accretion disc. The gravitational field of the disc is constructed and its effect on the cluster structure is taken into account as an axially symmetric perturbation. Attention is focused on a circumnuclear region (r ≲ 104 gravitational radii) where the effects of the central black hole and the disc dominate over the influence of an outer galaxy. It is shown how the stellar system becomes gradually flattened towards the disc plane. For certain combinations of the model parameters, a toroidal structure is formed by a fraction of stars. Growing anisotropy of stellar velocities as well as their segregation occur. The mass function of the inner cluster is modified and it progressively departs from the asymptotic form assumed in the outer cluster. A new stationary distribution can be characterized in terms of velocity dispersion of the stellar sample in the central region of the modified cluster.