{
  "id": "2212.09215",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2022-12-19T02:11:30.000Z",
  "updated": "2022-12-19T02:11:30.000Z",
  "title": "Tidal disruption of stellar clusters and their remnants' spatial distribution near the galactic center",
  "authors": [
    "Long Wang",
    "D. N. C. Lin"
  ],
  "comment": "21 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.GA",
    "astro-ph.SR"
  ],
  "abstract": "The accretion of massive star clusters via dynamical friction has previously been established to be a likely scenario for the build up of nuclear stellar clusters (NSCs). A remaining issue is whether strong external tidal perturbation may lead to the severe disruption of loosely-bound clusters well before they sink deeply into the center of their host galaxies. We carry out a series of $N$-body simulations and verify our early idealized analytic models. We show if the density profile of the host galaxies can be described by a power-law distribution with an index, $\\alpha <1$, the cluster would be compressed in the radial direction by the external galactic tidal field. In contrast, the galactic tidal perturbation is disruptive in regions with a steep, $\\alpha >1$, density fall-off or in the very center where gravity is dominated by the point-mass potential of super-massive black holes (SMBHs). This sufficient criterion supplements the conventional necessary Roche-lobe-filling condition in determining the preservation versus disintegration of satellite stellar systems. We simulate the disruption of stellar clusters which venture on nearly-circular, modestly- or highly-eccentric orbits into the center of galaxies with a range of background density profiles and SMBHs. We obtain the spatial distribution of the stellar-cluster remnants. We apply these results to the NSC within a few parsecs from SMBH Sgr A$^\\ast$ at the Galactic Center. Recent observations indicate the coexistence of two populations of stars with distinctively separate ages and metallicities. We verify that the subsolar-metalicity population can be the debris of disrupted stellar clusters.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2022-12-19T02:11:30.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "stellar clusters",
      "spatial distribution",
      "galactic center",
      "tidal disruption",
      "strong external tidal perturbation"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 21,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}