Gas Retention and Accumulation in Stellar Clusters and Galaxies: Implications for Star Formation and Black Hole Accretion

Jill Naiman

November 19, 2012

–

Abstract: The effective supply and retention of gas in shallow gravitational potentials is a problem with implications in a diverse set of astrophysical systems. In particular, the magnitude of gas flows into stellar clusters, mature dwarf galaxies, and the nuclear star clusters surrounding many supermassive black holes can have large impacts on the star formation histories and compact object accretion rates in these systems. In this talk, both analytical and computational techniques will be used to show how such such weakly bound gravitational structures might be able to accumulate gas effectively. In this context, the implications for star formation in dwarf galaxies after their incorporation into a larger host halo will be presented. The augmentation to a supermassive black hole’s accretion rate from a surrounding nuclear star cluster during its host galaxy’s merger will also be discussed.