Triaxial Black-Hole Nuclei

Abstract

We demonstrate that the nuclei of galaxies containing supermassive black holes can be triaxial in shape. Schwarzschild's method was first used to construct self-consistent orbital superpositions representing nuclei with axis ratios of 1:0.79:0.5 and containing a central point mass representing a black hole. Two different density laws were considered, with power-law slopes of -1 and -2. We constructed two solutions for each power law: one containing only regular orbits and the other containing both regular and chaotic orbits. Monte-Carlo realizations of the models were then advanced in time using an N-body code to verify their stability. All four models were found to retain their triaxial shapes for many crossing times. The possibility that galactic nuclei may be triaxial complicates the interpretation of stellar-kinematical data from the centers of galaxies and may alter the inferred interaction rates between stars and supermassive black holes.

4 pages, 4 postscript figures, uses emulateapj.sty

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Intermediate and Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals -- Astrophysics, Science Applications and Detection using LISA
• Stellar Processes Near the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center
• Testing General Relativity with Low-Frequency, Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectors
• Triaxial orbit based galaxy models with an application to the (apparent) decoupled core galaxy NGC 4365
• Long Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Chaotic Loss Cones, Black Hole Fueling and the M-Sigma Relation
• The Causes of Halo Shape Changes Induced by Cooling Baryons: Disks Versus Substructures
• The final-parsec problem in the collisionless limit
• Binary Encounters With Supermassive Black Holes: Zero-Eccentricity LISA Events
• A new Monte Carlo code for star cluster simulations: II. Central black hole and stellar collisions
• Orbital decomposition of CALIFA spiral galaxies
• Density-potential pairs for spherical stellar systems with Sersic light-profiles and (optional) power-law cores
• Interactions between multiple supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei: a solution to the final parsec problem
• Dynamics of galaxy cores and supermassive black holes
• Feeding black holes at galactic centres by capture from isothermal cusps
• Tidal disruption rate of stars by supermassive black holes obtained by direct N-body simulations
• Orbital inspiral into a massive black hole in a galactic center
• A Self-Consistent Study of Triaxial Black-Hole Nuclei
• Long-Lived Triaxiality in the Dynamically Old Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4365: A Limit on Chaos and Black Hole Mass
• Orbital Instabilities in a Triaxial Cusp Potential
• Chaos and chaotic phase mixing in cuspy triaxial potentials
• SMBH in Galactic Nuclei with Tidal Disruption of Stars
• The influence of Massive Black Hole Binaries on the Morphology of Merger Remnants
• The Orbital Structure of Triaxial Galaxies with Figure Rotation
• Special Features of Galactic Dynamics
• Tidal disruptions of separated binaries in galactic nuclei
• Self-consistent triaxial models
• The MODEST questions: challenges and future directions in stellar cluster research
• The rate of secular evolution in elliptical galaxies with central masses
• Exploring the origin of stars on bound and unbound orbits causing tidal disruption events
• Global Dynamics in Galactic Triaxial Systems I
• A preliminary study about gravitational wave radiation and cosmic heat death