The fate of former companions to hypervelocity stars originating at the Galactic Centre

Abstract

The hypervelocity star SDSS J090745.0+024507 in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy most likely originated from the breakup of a binary star system by the central black hole, SgrA*. We examine the fate of former binary companions to similar hypervelocity stars (HVSs) by simulating 600 different binary orbits around SgrA* with a direct N-body integration code. For some orbital parameters, the binary breakup process leads to HVSs with ejection velocities that are almost an order of magnitude larger than the velocity observed for SDSS J090745.0+024507. The former companion stars populate highly eccentric orbits which resemble the observed orbits for some of the stars nearest to SgrA*. © 2006 RAS.