Stellar-wind-fueled Accretion onto Sagittarius A* in the Presence of a Nuclear Star Cluster
5 affiliations
- 1Northwestern University
- 2Institute for Advanced Study
- 3Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
- 4University of Tennessee
- 5University of Maryland
Abstract
The Milky Way’s Galactic center hosts the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), which provides us with a close-up view into supermassive black hole accretion and feedback. Recent works have shown that the winds from ∼30 Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars orbiting Sgr A* at about 4″ are important contributors to feeding the supermassive black hole. A nuclear star cluster (NSC) with a mass of several 10 ⁶ M ⊙ , of which 10 ⁶ M ⊙ is within 1 pc, also surrounds Sgr A*. The NSC contributes to the gravitational potential in the Galactic center, affecting the orbits of the WR stars and their stellar winds. In this work, we examine the effects that the NSC has on the accretion of these stellar winds onto Sgr A*, which have previously been neglected. We find that, on the parsec scale, the effect from the gravitational potential of the NSC is negligible on the wind-fed accretion flow, validating the existing simulations used in the literature.
Related
- Stellar discs and intermediate-mass black holes in galactic nuclei II. Fragmenting the disc and forming the S-stars in a live nuclear star cluster
- Inferring the Black Hole and Accretion Parameters of Sagittarius A ∗ from EHT Observations Using a Semianalytic Model
- KMOS spectroscopic follow-up of 16 star cluster candidates in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy
- Sub-TeV Singlino Dark Matter in light from Sagittarius A∗ and LUX-ZEPLIN Nuclear-Recoil Event
- KMOS Spectroscopic Follow-up of 16 Star Cluster Candidates of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
BibTeX
@article{skrabacz2026stellarwindfueled,
title = {{Stellar-wind-fueled Accretion onto Sagittarius A* in the Presence of a Nuclear Star Cluster}},
author = {Edward Skrabacz and Lena Murchikova and Sean M. Ressler and Asad Ukani and Siddhant Solanki},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d57},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d57},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Stellar-wind-fueled Accretion onto Sagittarius A* in the Presence of a Nuclear Star Cluster
AU - Edward Skrabacz
AU - Lena Murchikova
AU - Sean M. Ressler
AU - Asad Ukani
AU - Siddhant Solanki
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d57
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d57
AB - The Milky Way’s Galactic center hosts the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), which provides us with a close-up view into supermassive black hole accretion and feedback. Recent works have shown that the winds from ∼30 Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars orbiting Sgr A* at about 4″ are important contributors to feeding the supermassive black hole. A nuclear star cluster (NSC) with a mass of several 10 ⁶ M ⊙ , of which 10 ⁶ M ⊙ is within 1 pc, also surrounds Sgr A*. The NSC contributes to the gravitational potential in the Galactic center, affecting the orbits of the WR stars and their stellar winds. In this work, we examine the effects that the NSC has on the accretion of these stellar winds onto Sgr A*, which have previously been neglected. We find that, on the parsec scale, the effect from the gravitational potential of the NSC is negligible on the wind-fed accretion flow, validating the existing simulations used in the literature.
SN - 0004-637X
SN - 1538-4357
ER -