Effect of angular momentum distribution on gravitational loss-cone instability in stellar clusters around massive BH

Abstract

Small perturbations in spherical and thin disk stellar clusters surrounding massive a black hole are studied. Due to the black hole, stars with sufficiently low angular momentum escape from the system through the loss cone. We show that stability properties of spherical clusters crucially depend on whether the distribution of stars is monotonic or non-monotonic in angular momentum. It turns out that only non-monotonic distributions can be unstable. At the same time the instability in disk clusters is possible for both types of distributions.

14 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (6)

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• Slow modes in Keplerian disks
• Secular stability and instability in stellar systems surrounding massive objects
• Loss Cone Refilling Rates in Galactic Nuclei
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Secular Stellar Dynamics near a Massive Black Hole
• Order-disorder phase transition in black-hole star clusters. II. A scale-free cluster
• Unstable $m=1$ modes of counter-rotating Keplerian discs
• Simulation of the loss-cone instability in spherical systems. II. Dominating Keplerian potential
• The Lynden-Bell bar formation mechanism in simple and realistic galactic models
• Deformation of the Galactic Centre stellar cusp due to the gravity of a growing gas disc
• Simulation of the loss-cone instability in spherical systems. I. Dominating harmonic potential