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STABILITY OF GAS CLOUDS IN GALACTIC NUCLEI: AN EXTENDED VIRIAL THEOREM
Indexado
WoS WOS:000372305700050
Scopus SCOPUS_ID:84960949678
DOI 10.3847/0004-637X/819/2/138
Año 2016
Tipo artículo de investigación

Citas Totales

Autores Afiliación Chile

Instituciones Chile

% Participación
Internacional

Autores
Afiliación Extranjera

Instituciones
Extranjeras


Abstract



Cold gas entering the central 1-10(2) pc of a galaxy fragments and condenses into clouds. The stability of the clouds determines whether they will be turned into stars or can be delivered to the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) to turn on an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The conventional criteria to assess the stability of these clouds, such as the Jeans criterion and Roche (or tidal) limit, are insufficient here, because they assume the dominance of self-gravity in binding a cloud, and neglect external agents, such as pressure and tidal forces, which are common in galactic nuclei. We formulate a new scheme for judging this stability. We first revisit the conventional Virial theorem, taking into account an external pressure, to identify the correct range of masses that lead to stable clouds. We then extend the theorem to further include an external tidal field, which is equally crucial for the stability in the region of our interest-in dense star clusters, around SMBHs. We apply our extended Virial theorem to find new solutions to controversial problems, namely, the stability of the gas clumps in AGN tori, the circum-nuclear disk in the Galactic Center, and the central molecular zone of the Milky Way. The masses we derive for these structures are orders of magnitude smaller than the commonly used Virial masses (equivalent to the Jeans mass). Moreover, we prove that these clumps are stable, contrary to what one would naively deduce from the Roche (tidal) limit.

Revista



Revista ISSN
Astrophysical Journal 0004-637X

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Disciplinas de Investigación



WOS
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Scopus
Sin Disciplinas
SciELO
Sin Disciplinas

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Publicaciones WoS (Ediciones: ISSHP, ISTP, AHCI, SSCI, SCI), Scopus, SciELO Chile.

Colaboración Institucional



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Autores - Afiliación



Ord. Autor Género Institución - País
1 Chen, Xian - Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile - Chile
2 Amaro-Seoane, Pau - Max Planck Inst Gravitat Phys - Alemania
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) - Alemania
Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut) - Alemania
3 CUADRA-STIPETICH, JORGE RODRIGO Hombre Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile - Chile
Centro de Excelencia en Astrofísica y Tecnologías Afines - Chile

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Financiamiento



Fuente
CONICYT-Chile through FONDECYT grant
CONICYT-Chile through Basal grant
CONICYT-Chile through Anillo grant
"VRI concurso estadias en el extranjero" of PUC

Muestra la fuente de financiamiento declarada en la publicación.

Agradecimientos



Agradecimiento
We thank Johannes Buchner and Robert Nikutta for the discussions on AGN torus, and Diederik Kruijssen for many useful comments on the dynamics of the molecular clouds in the Milky Way. We also thank our Referee for various constructive suggestions. X.C. and J.C. are supported by CONICYT-Chile through Anillo (ACT1101), Basal (PFB0609), and FONDECYT (1141175) grants. P.A.S. is indebted to Sonia Perez for her support during the write-up of the paper. Part of this work is carried out at the Astronomy Department of Peking University, supported by the "VRI concurso estadias en el extranjero" of PUC.

Muestra la fuente de financiamiento declarada en la publicación.