The Origin of the Young Stars in the Nucleus of M31

Abstract

The triple nucleus of M31 consists of a population of old red stars in an eccentric disk (P1 and P2) and another population of younger A stars in a circular disk (P3) around M31's central supermassive black hole (SMBH). We argue that P1 and P2 determine the maximal radial extent of the younger A star population and provide the gas that fueled the starburst that generated P3. The eccentric stellar disk creates an $m=1$ non-axisymmetric perturbation to the potential. This perturbed potential drives gas into the inner parsec around the SMBH, if the pattern speed of the eccentric stellar disk is ${\Omega }_p\lesssim 3-10\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{p}{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$. We show that stellar mass loss from P1 and P2 is sufficient to create a gravitationally unstable gaseous disk of $\sim 10^5\Msun$ every $0.1-1$ Gyrs, consistent with the 200 Myr age of P3. Similar processes may act in other systems to produce very compact nuclear starbursts.

10 pages, 7 figures, accepted by ApJ, changes made from referee suggestions

References in corpus (3)

• The Two Young Star Disks in the Central Parsec of the Galaxy: Properties, Dynamics and Formation
• Starbursts near supermassive black holes: young stars in the Galactic Center, and gravitational waves in LISA band
• The Chemical Evolution of Helium in Globular Clusters: Implications for the Self-Pollution Scenario

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Nuclear Star Clusters
• On the origins of enigmatic stellar populations in Local Group galactic nuclei
• Fast Modes and Dusty Horseshoes in Transitional Disks
• The Effectiveness of the Kozai Mechanism in the Galactic Centre
• Gas Shepherding by an Infalling Satellite
• Exhaustion of the gas next to M31's supermassive black hole
• M31 circum-nuclear region: a molecular survey with the IRAM-interferometer
• The Galactic Center compared with nuclei of nearby galaxies
• M31 nucleus: molecular and ionised gas content upper limits
• Gravitational Torques from a Lopsided Young Stellar Component Sustain High Black Hole Accretion Rates in NGC 4593