Simulations of the Galactic Centre Stellar Discs In a Warped Disc Origin Scenario

Abstract

The Galactic Center (GC) hosts a population of young stars some of which seem to form a system of mutually inclined warped discs. While the presence of young stars in the close vicinity of the massive black hole is already problematic, their orbital configuration makes the situation even more puzzling. We present a possible warped disc origin scenario for these stars, which assumes an initially flat accretion disc which develops a warp through Pringle instability, or Bardeen-Petterson Effect. By working out the critical radii and the time scales involved, we argue that disc warping is plausible for GC parameters. We construct time evolution models for such discs considering the discs' self-gravity, and the torques exerted by the surrounding old star cluster. Our simulations suggest that the best agreement for a purely self-gravitating model is obtained for a disc-to-black hole mass ratio of M-d/M-bh similar to 0.001.