The Implications of Exploding Stars at the Galactic Center

Almost every galaxy, our galaxy included, harbors a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center with masses between millions and billions of solar masses. Surrounding these SMBHs are dense regions of stars and stellar remnants, such as neutron stars and black holes. Neutron stars and possibly black holes receive large natal kicks at birth on the order of hundreds of km/s. The natal kicks that occur in the vicinity of an SMBH may redistribute the orbital configuration of the compact objects and thus, alter their underlying density distribution. We model the effects of natal kicks on a Galactic Center population of massive stars and stellar binaries with different initial density distributions. Compared to observational constraints, we place an upper limit on the initial stellar profile. In addition, we predict that a sizable fraction of compact objects become unbound from the SMBH due to their kicks and will migrate throughout the galaxy. We address their potential detection by the future Roman Space Telescope. The proximity of the Galactic Center yields an unprecedented opportunity to study the conditions in the vicinity of an SMBH that may take place in other galactic nuclei as well.