text:
# DESY 03-117 ITEP-LAT/2003-24 KANAZAWA-03-24 Finite temperature phase transition in full QCD with 𝑁_𝑓=2 flavors of clover fermions at 𝑁_𝑡=8 and 10 Talk given by Y. N. at Lattice’03.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

In order to obtain predictions for the real world from lattice QCD, we have to extrapolate the lattice data to the continuum and to the chiral limits. Recently the Bielefeld group  and the CP-PACS collaboration  using different fermion actions obtained consistent values for the critical temperature $`T_c`$ in the chiral limit, albeit on rather coarse lattices at $`N_t=4`$ and 6. Edwards and Heller  determined $`T_c`$ for $`N_t=4`$, 6 using nonperturbatively improved Wilson fermions. We compute $`T_c`$ on finer lattices with $`N_t=8`$ and 10 with high statistics. Our results for $`N_t=8`$ were reported in Ref. .

## 2 SIMULATION

We use fermionic action for nonperturbatively $`O(a)`$ improved Wilson fermions:

$`S_F`$ $`=`$ $`S_F^o{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}}{2}}\kappa gc_{sw}a^5{\displaystyle _x}\overline{\psi }(x)\sigma _{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }\psi (x),`$
where $`S_F^o`$ is the original Wilson action, $`c_{sw}`$ was calculated in .

Configurations are generated on $`16^3\times 8`$ ($`\beta =5.2`$ and $`5.25`$) and $`24^3\times 10`$ ($`\beta =5.2`$) lattices at various $`\kappa `$. The values of $`\kappa `$ and corresponding number of trajectories for $`16^3\times 8`$ and $`24^3\times 10`$ lattices can be found in Ref.  and Table 1, respectively. The number of configurations for $`24^3\times 10`$ lattice is not large enough and results for this lattice are preliminary.

| $`\kappa `$ | $`0.1352`$ | $`0.1354`$ | $`0.1356`$ | $`0.1358`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| \# traj. | $`5,400`$ | $`7,400`$ | $`3,130`$ | $`1,650`$ |

Table 1:Simulation statistics on $`24^3\times 10`$.

We use results obtained at T=0 to fix the scale. An updated version of the contour plot of lines of constant $`r_0/a`$ and $`m_\pi /m_\rho `$  is shown in Fig. 1.

## 3 CRITICAL TEMPERATURE

We use non–Abelian and Abelian Polyakov loops to determine the transition temperature. The Maximally Abelian gauge  is fixed by maximizing the quantity

$`R={\displaystyle _{s,\mu }}{\displaystyle _{i=1}^3}\left|\stackrel{~}{U}_{ii}(s,\mu )\right|^2,`$
with respect to gauge transformations $`g`$, $`\stackrel{~}{U}(s,\mu )=g(s)U(s,\mu )g^{}(s+\widehat{\mu })`$. We use an $`SU(3)`$ version of the simulated annealing algorithm . The Abelian link variables are defined as $`u_i(s,\mu )=\mathrm{exp}\{i\theta _\mu ^i(s)\}`$, where

$`\theta _\mu ^i\left(s\right)=\mathrm{arg}\stackrel{~}{U}_{ii}(s,\mu ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}{\displaystyle _{j=1}^3}\mathrm{arg}\stackrel{~}{U}_{jj}(s,\mu )|_{\mathrm{mod}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\pi }.`$
We then define the Abelian, monopole and photon Polyakov loop operators as in .

The Polyakov loop susceptibility is used to determine the transition point. In Fig.2 the non–Abelian Polyakov loop and its susceptibility are depicted. We get the following values for the critical temperature:

$`T_c196(8)`$MeV, $`m_\pi /m_\rho 0.64`$ (Preliminary)
$`T_c=210\left(4\right)`$MeV, $`m_\pi /m_\rho =0.77`$

$`T_c=219(3)`$MeV, $`m_\pi /m_\rho =0.81`$

It is known  that in SU(2) gluodynamics the non-Abelian, Abelian and monopole Polyakov loops give the same $`T_c`$ and critical indices. It follows from comparison of Fig.2 and Fig.3 that also in the full QCD these three Polyakov loops have similar behavior and their susceptibilities have maxima at the same temperature.

## 4 CONTINUUM LIMIT

At small enough lattice spacing and quark mass one can extrapolate the critical temperature $`T_c`$ to the continuum and the chiral limits using formula:

$$T_cr_0=(T_cr_0)^{m_q,a0}+C_a(a/r_0)^2+C_q(\frac{1}{\kappa }\frac{1}{\kappa _c})^\alpha ,$$

where $`r_0=0.5`$ fm and $`(T_cr_0)^{m_q,a0}`$ corresponds to the extrapolated value.

We are brave enough to use four values for $`T_cr_0`$ (see Table 3), obtained at rather large quark masses, to estimate the parameters in this extrapolation expression. A fit gives $`(T_c)^{m_q,a0}`$ and $`\alpha `$ with large errors: $`(T_c)^{m_q,a0}190`$ MeV, $`\alpha 0.8`$.

| $`T_cr_0`$ | $`a/r_0`$ |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $`0.50\left(2\right)`$ | $`0.20\left(1\right)`$ | $`N_t=10,\beta =5.2`$ (prelim.) |
| $`0.53\left(1\right)`$ | $`0.234\left(5\right)`$ | $`N_t=8,\beta =5.2`$ |
| $`0.55\left(1\right)`$ | $`0.225\left(5\right)`$ | $`N_t=8,\beta =5.25`$ |
| $`0.57\left(2\right)`$ | $`0.29\left(1\right)`$ | $`N_t=6,\beta =5.2`$ (Ref. ) |

Table 3:Available data for $`T_cr_0`$.

In $`N_f=2`$ QCD the critical indices are expected to belong to the universality class of the $`3D`$ $`O(4)`$ spin model for which one expects $`\alpha =0.55`$. Fixing $`\alpha `$ to this value we get the extrapolated temperature with a higher accuracy:

$$T_c^{m_q,a0}172.5(3.3)\text{MeV}.$$
(1)
This value agrees with values obtained in Refs..

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

We determined the critical temperature in full QCD on $`16^3\times 8`$ and $`24^3\times 10`$ lattices at $`\beta =5.2`$ and $`5.25`$ with $`N_f=2`$ clover fermions using non-Abelian and Abelian Polyakov loop susceptibilities. Our results are in agreement with the results of other groups, as it is shown in Fig. 4. Assuming that the critical indices of the two flavor QCD belong to the universality class of the 3D $`O(4)`$ spin model, we extrapolate the critical temperature $`T_c`$ to the continuum and the chiral limits. The extrapolation result is given by (1). We are continuing simulations on $`24^3\times 10`$ lattice to get better precision of $`T_c`$ value on this lattice.

## 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is supported by the SR8000 Supercomputer Project of High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). A part of numerical measurements has been done using NEC SX-5 at Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP) of Osaka University. M.N.Ch. is supported by JSPS Fellowship P01023. T.S. is partially supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas No.13135210 and (B) No.15340073. The Moscow group is partially supported by RFBR grants 02-02-17308, 01-02-17456, grants INTAS–00-00111, DFG-RFBR 436 RUS 113/739/0, and CRDF awards RPI-2364-MO-02 and MO-011-0. G.S. would like to thank Kanazawa University for its kind hospitality.


format: text

text:
# Ejection of hypervelocity stars by the (binary) black hole(s) in the Galactic center

## 1 Introduction

The Milky Way, as well as most nearby elliptical galaxies and disk galaxies with spheroids, is believed to house a massive black hole (BH) at its center (e.g. Schödel et al. 2002; Genzel et al. 2003; Schödel et al. 2003; Eisenhauer et al. 2003; Ghez et al. 2003a, b, c; Gebhardt et al. 2003). The deep gravitational potential well close to the BH enables relativistic phenomena, such as the relativistic motion of jets associated with some active galactic nuclei (e.g. Begelman, Blandford & Rees 1984). Hills (1988) first pointed out that stars may also be expelled from the vicinity of the BH with high velocities. The main features of Hills’ argument can be explained simply. Consider a star with specific energy $`E\frac{1}{2}v^2+\mathrm{\Phi }(r)`$, where $`v`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r)`$ are the velocity and specific potential of the star at position $`𝐫`$. Close to the BH, $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r)GM_{}/r`$ where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant and $`M_{}`$ is the BH mass. Now suppose that the star approaches close enough to the BH so that $`|\mathrm{\Phi }(r)||E|`$. In this case, the star will have a velocity $`v=\sqrt{2[E\mathrm{\Phi }(r)]}\sqrt{2GM_{}/r}=2.9\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1(M_{}/10^6\mathrm{M}_{})^{1/2}(1\mathrm{mpc}/r)^{1/2}`$, where $`\mathrm{mpc}10^3\mathrm{pc}`$ will be often used as a length unit in this paper. If the star then suffers a velocity change $`\delta vv`$ (e.g. due to interactions with surrounding stars or the tidal disruption of a close binary) and the increase of the specific energy of the star $`\delta E=\frac{1}{2}(v+\delta v)^2\frac{1}{2}v^2v\delta v`$ is much larger than $`|E|`$, the star will escape from the BH with velocity roughly given by

$$\sqrt{2v\delta v}1.5\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1(M_{}/10^6\mathrm{M}_{})^{1/4}(1\mathrm{mpc}/r)^{1/4}(\delta v/400\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)^{1/2}.$$
(1)
The discovery of such hypervelocity stars—stars with velocity exceeding $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$—would provide strong evidence for the existence of a massive central BH in our Galaxy—if any is still needed—based solely on stellar kinematics in the outer parts of the Galaxy. The properties of hypervelocity stars would also illuminate the nature of the innermost regions of galaxies, such as the stellar kinematics, the age and metallicity distribution, the number and mass of the BHs, etc.

In this paper, we will study the expected properties of such hypervelocity stars. We consider three possible scattering processes.

1. Gravitational encounters of single stars. The gravitational interaction of two stars of masses $`m_i`$ and $`m_j`$ leads to a velocity change of star $`m_i`$,

$`\delta v`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2Gm_j}{[G^2(m_i+m_j)^2/w_{ij}^2+Y_{ij}^2w_{ij}^2]^{1/2}}}`$ (2)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2Gm_j}{[2G(m_i+m_j)Y_{ij}]^{1/2}}}`$
$`=`$ $`4.4\times 10^2\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{2m_j}{m_i+m_j}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_j}{1\mathrm{M}_{}}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\mathrm{R}_{}}{Y_{ij}}}\right)^{1/2}`$
where $`Y_{ij}`$ is the impact parameter and $`w_{ij}`$ is the initial relative velocity of the two stars (Binney & Tremaine, 1987). Only rare close encounters (impact parameters of a few solar radii) can produce velocity changes large enough for a star to escape from the BH at high velocity.
2. Tidal breakup of a binary star. We denote the component masses of the binary as $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$. A binary with semimajor axis $`a_\mathrm{b}`$ will be tidally disrupted by the massive BH when it passes closer to the BH than the Roche or tidal radius $`a_\mathrm{b}[M_{}/(m_1+m_2)]^{1/3}10\mathrm{AU}(a_\mathrm{b}/0.1\mathrm{AU})[M_{}/10^6(m_1+m_2)]^{1/3}`$. During the tidal breakup, each star will receive a velocity change of order its orbital velocity relative to the center of mass of the binary star, that is, the velocity change of $`m_1`$ is about (Hills, 1988; Gould & Quillen, 2003)

$`\delta v`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{G(m_1+m_2)}{a_\mathrm{b}}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_2}{m_1+m_2}}\right)`$ (3)
$``$ $`67\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{2m_2}{m_1+m_2}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_2}{1\mathrm{M}_{}}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{0.1\mathrm{AU}}{a_\mathrm{b}}}\right)^{1/2}.`$
If one star gains energy during this process, the other will lose energy and become more tightly bound to the BH. Comparing equations (2) and (3), we see that the semimajor axis of the binary star $`a_\mathrm{b}`$ in equation (3) plays the same role as the impact parameter $`Y_{ij}`$ in equation (2).
3. Ejection by a binary black hole (BBH). This is actually a special case of mechanism (1), in which the perturbing star $`m_j`$ is one component of a BBH. The existence of BBHs in some galactic centers is a necessary consequence of hierarchical galaxy formation (Begelman, Blandford & Rees, 1980; Yu, 2002; Milosavljević & Merritt, 2002; Volonteri, Haardt & Madau, 2002; Komossa, 2003)111We do not consider the possibility of three or more massive BHs in galactic centers, although this configuration may also occur in some galaxies.. We denote the component masses of the BBH as $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ ($`M_1M_2`$). If the semimajor axis $`a_{}`$ of the BBH is smaller than a certain value $`a_\mathrm{h}`$($`GM_2/4\sigma _\mathrm{c}^2`$, where $`\sigma _\mathrm{c}`$ is the one-dimensional velocity dispersion of the galactic center, see Quinlan 1996, eq. 29), most of the low angular momentum stars that pass through its vicinity will be expelled with an energy gain after one or several close encounters with the BBH, and the average velocity increase of these stars is given by:

$$\delta vF\delta t1.5\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\left(\frac{2M_2}{M_1+M_2}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{M_2}{10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{1\mathrm{mpc}}{a_{}}\right)^{1/2},$$
(4)
where the force per unit mass from the BH $`M_2`$ is $`FGM_2/a_{}^2`$ and the interaction time $`\delta t[G(M_1+M_2)/a_{}^3]^{1/2}`$ (Quinlan, 1996). Note that $`\delta v`$ in equation (4) is independent of the stellar mass, while $`\delta v`$ in equations (2) and (3) depends on the mass of the ejected star; otherwise the three equations have similar form.

This paper is organized as follows. In §2, we review the data on the inner structure of the Galaxy, such as the mass of the central BH, stellar density, etc. In §3, we study the rates of ejecting hypervelocity stars due to the three processes discussed above. A discussion and conclusions are given in §4.

## 2 The Galactic center

Measurements of stellar radial velocities and proper motions at radii $`r10\mathrm{mpc}`$, the discovery of variable X-ray emission around Sagittarius A, and the tracing of the Keplerian orbits of stars at radii $`r0.1`$$`1\mathrm{mpc}`$ have provided strong evidence for the existence of a massive BH in the center of the Galaxy (Genzel et al., 2000; Baganoff et al., 2001; Schödel et al., 2002; Genzel et al., 2003; Schödel et al., 2003; Eisenhauer et al., 2003; Ghez et al., 2003a, b, c). We expect that the distribution of old stars should be approximately spherical and isotropic, since the two-body relaxation time is short, and this expectation is consistent with the observations (Genzel et al., 2000). We may describe the mass distribution near the center of the Galaxy by the combination of a point mass of $`3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (obtained by averaging the values $`(4.0\pm 0.3)\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ in Ghez et al. 2003c and $`(2.9\pm 0.2)\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ in Schödel et al. 2003, Fig. 11), plus the visible stellar system with mass density

$$\rho (r)=Ar^\alpha \mathrm{exp}(r^2/r_\mathrm{b}^2).$$
(5)
Here $`\alpha =1.8`$, the characteristic radius of the bulge is $`r_\mathrm{b}=1.9\mathrm{kpc}`$, and the normalization $`A`$ can be obtained by setting $`\rho (r=0.16\mathrm{pc})=3.6\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{pc}^3`$ (Dehnen & Binney, 1998; Schödel et al., 2003). The density distribution in equation (5) has a cusp at small radii, $`\rho r^\alpha `$ as $`r0`$, consistent with theoretical models of a stellar system with a central BH and all stars having the same mass ($`\alpha =1.75`$, e.g. Bahcall & Wolf 1976). At the smallest radii, $`r10\mathrm{}=0.4\mathrm{pc}`$, infrared observations suggest that $`\alpha `$ decreases to 1.4 (Genzel et al., 2003), somewhat below the theoretical models.

Throughout this paper we shall assume that the distance to the Galactic center is $`R_0=8\mathrm{kpc}`$ (Eisenhauer et al., 2003). If not otherwise stated, we assume for simplicity that the stars in the Galactic center have the solar mass and radius. The effect of the generalization to a distribution of masses and radii will be discussed briefly in §4.

We define the distribution function (DF) $`f(𝐱,𝐯)`$ of a stellar system so that $`f(𝐱,𝐯)\mathrm{d}^3𝐱\mathrm{d}^3𝐯`$ is the number of stars within a phase-space volume $`\mathrm{d}^3𝐱\mathrm{d}^3𝐯`$ of $`(𝐱,𝐯)`$. By Jeans’s theorem, the DF in a spherical and isotropic stellar system depends on $`(𝐱,𝐯)`$ only through the specific energy $`E`$. The DF $`f(E)`$ in the Galactic center, which will be used to calculate the ejection rates of hypervelocity stars below, can be obtained from equation (5) and the Eddington formula (eq. 4-140a in Binney & Tremaine 1987). The potential in the stellar system $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r)=\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(r)+\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(r)`$ is contributed by both the central BH ($`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}`$) and the bulge stars ($`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}`$); however, at small radii $`r1\mathrm{pc}`$ the gravitational potential contributed by stars can be ignored. In this region we have $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }_{}=GM_{}/r`$, $`\rho (r)r^\alpha `$, and the stellar DF is

$$f(E)=C|E|^{\alpha 3/2},$$
(6)
where

$$C=2^{3/2}\pi ^{3/2}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\alpha )}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\alpha \frac{1}{2})}\frac{\rho (r)}{m_{}}\sigma (r)^{2\alpha },\sigma (r)\sqrt{\frac{GM_{}}{r}},$$
(7)
and $`m_{}`$ is the stellar mass. Note that $`C`$ is independent of radius since the radial variations of $`\rho (r)`$ and $`\sigma (r)`$ cancel.

## 3 Rates of ejecting stars with high velocities

In this section, we study the rates of ejecting stars with high velocities from the Galactic center. We will consider in turn the three ejection mechanisms described in §1.

### 3.1 Close encounters between two single stars

Two-body gravitational encounters between single stars can eject one of the two stars (Hénon, 1969; Lin & Tremaine, 1980). Consider a test star with mass $`m_i`$ and velocity $`𝐯_i`$ that encounters a star with velocity $`𝐯_j`$. The test star will experience a velocity change from $`𝐯_i`$ to $`𝐯_i+𝐞_{ij}`$ (see eq. 2 for $`|𝐞_{ij}|`$). If the test star is moving through a background of stars with DF $`f(𝐫,𝐯)`$, the probability that this star will suffer an encounter with a background star during time $`\mathrm{d}t`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(𝐫,𝐯_i)\mathrm{d}t`$, is given by:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(𝐫,𝐯_i)\mathrm{d}t=\mathrm{d}t\mathrm{d}^3𝐯_jf(𝐫,𝐯_j)w_{ij}dY_{ij}^2d\mathrm{\Psi }_{ij},$$
(8)
where $`Y_{ij}`$ is the impact parameter, $`w_{ij}=|𝐯_i𝐯_j|`$ is the relative velocity and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ij}`$ is the angle between the $`(𝐯_i,𝐯_j)`$ plane and the $`(𝐯_i𝐯_j,𝐞_{ij})`$ plane (Hénon, 1960). If the velocity distribution of field stars is isotropic, we have

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(𝐫,𝐯_i)\mathrm{d}t=\mathrm{d}tdv_j\frac{2\pi v_j}{v_i}f(𝐫,v_j)dw_{ij}w_{ij}^2dY_{ij}^2d\mathrm{\Psi }_{ij},$$
(9)
where $`v_j=|𝐯_j|`$. The probability that the test star is expelled with a velocity higher than $`v_0`$ at infinity can be obtained by restricting this integral to the encounters that change the value of its velocity from $`v_i=|𝐯_i|`$ to a value larger than $`v_\mathrm{e}`$, i.e.,

$$|𝐯_i+𝐞_{ij}|v_\mathrm{e}.$$
(10)
Here $`\frac{1}{2}v_0^2+\mathrm{\Phi }(r=\mathrm{})=\frac{1}{2}v_\mathrm{e}^2+\mathrm{\Phi }(r)E_0`$, and we shall assume that $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r=\mathrm{})=0`$. We call $`v_0`$ the ejection speed and $`E_0`$ the ejection energy. Thus, the rate of ejecting stars with ejection speed higher than $`v_0`$ due to two-body encounters in a unit volume around position $`𝐫`$, $`(𝐫,v_0)`$, is given by:

$`(𝐫,v_0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \mathrm{d}^3𝐯_if(𝐫,𝐯_i)\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(𝐫,𝐯_i)}`$ (11)
$`=`$ $`8\pi ^2{\displaystyle dv_idv_jdw_{ij}dY_{ij}^2d\mathrm{\Psi }_{ij}f(𝐫,v_i)f(𝐫,v_j)v_iv_jw_{ij}^2},`$
where the integration variables should satisfy the inequality (10). The total rate of ejecting stars with ejection speed higher than $`v_0`$ is given by

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}N_{\mathrm{ej}}(v_0)}{\mathrm{d}t}=4\pi _0^{\mathrm{}}(𝐫,v_0)r^2dr.$$
(12)
The ejection rate can be obtained analytically in some cases. Ignoring possible stellar collisions (when the impact parameter $`Y_{ij}`$ is small enough) and treating stars as point masses with zero radius, equation (11) can be simplified as follows (Hénon, 1969; Lin & Tremaine, 1980):

$$(𝐫,v_0)=\frac{2^{13/2}}{3}\pi ^3G^2m_{}^2_\mathrm{\Phi }^0dEf(E)_{E_0+\mathrm{\Phi }E}^0dE^{}f(E^{})\frac{(E^{}+EE_0\mathrm{\Phi })^{3/2}}{(E_0E)^2}.$$
(13)
By ignoring the gravitational potential contributed by stars (e.g. in the region close to the BH) and applying equation (6) in equations (12) and (13), the total ejection rate of stars as a function of ejection speed can be found to be (Lin & Tremaine, 1980):

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}N_{\mathrm{ej}}(v_{})}{\mathrm{d}t}=\frac{2^{5/2}\pi ^{3/2}}{3}\frac{G^5M_{}^3\rho ^2}{\sigma ^9}\left(\frac{E_{}}{\sigma ^2}\right)^{2\alpha 9/2}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(1+\alpha )\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{9}{2}2\alpha )}{(3\alpha )(2\alpha )}.$$
(14)
Although the ejection rate in this equation is integrated over radius, we have expressed it in terms of the velocity dispersion $`\sigma (r)`$ and the density $`\rho (r)`$, given by equation (7)—these can be evaluated at any radius since their radial dependences cancel out in equation (14). Note that in this formula the ejection speed $`v_{}`$ represents the velocity after escaping the gravity of the central BH but before climbing through the bulge, and the ejection energy $`E_{}=\frac{1}{2}v_{}^2`$. Using $`\alpha =1.8`$, BH mass $`M_{}=3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$, and the stellar mass density distribution $`\rho (r)=Ar^\alpha `$ (see eq. 5 and the subsequent text) in equation (14), we obtain the ejection rate shown in Figure 1 as the dotted line at the top of the figure.

In reality, stars have non-zero radii, and encounters of two stars with impact parameter $`Y_{ij}<Y_{\mathrm{coll}}(R_i+R_j)[1+2G(m_i+m_j)/(R_i+R_j)w_{ij}^2]^{1/2}`$ will lead to stellar collisions, where $`R_i`$ and $`R_j`$ are the radii of the two stars $`m_i`$ and $`m_j`$. Such collisions have two principal effects on the calculation of the ejection rate: (i) Encounters with $`Y_{ij}<Y_{\mathrm{coll}}`$ should not be included in equation (11). (ii) Stars cannot diffuse to energies $`EGm_{}/R_{}`$ without colliding first, where $`R_{}`$ is the stellar radius (Bahcall & Wolf, 1976). Thus, we cut off the stellar distribution, so that $`f(E)=0`$ for $`E<Gm_{}/R_{}`$. After making these modifications, the ejection rate is hard to obtain analytically so we resort to numerical calculations, shown by the dashed line in Figure 1. As seen from Figure 1, the ejection rate is significantly decreased by stellar collisions, especially at speeds $`300\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ that approach or exceed the escape speeds from the stellar surface.

These results do not include the effects of the gravitational potential of the bulge, disk and halo. To include the effects of the bulge, we use equation (5) to compute the gravitational potential from the bulge; we add the potential from the BH and use Eddington’s formula to compute the bulge DF $`f(E)`$; we then truncate the DF for $`E\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(r=0)<Gm_{}/R_{}`$, and insert the result into the formula (13) to obtain the ejection rate. The result is shown by the bold solid line in Figure 1; this is much lower than the dashed line at low speeds, because low-velocity stars cannot climb the potential to escape the stellar bulge. The difference between the bold solid line and the dashed line is negligible at ejection speeds higher than $`1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

These results do not include the potential of the Galactic disk and halo. The gravitational potential difference between $`R_0=8\mathrm{kpc}`$ and the outer parts of the bulge, $`r_\mathrm{b}2\mathrm{kpc}`$, can be roughly estimated by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }=V_\mathrm{c}^2\mathrm{ln}(R_0/r_\mathrm{b})\frac{1}{2}(370\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)^2(V_\mathrm{c}/220\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)^2,$$
(15)
where $`V_\mathrm{c}`$ is the circular speed, assumed independent of radius. The velocity distribution of the stars that reach the solar radius $`R_0`$ is given by

$$v_\mathrm{h}=\sqrt{v_0^22\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }}.$$
(16)
The thin solid line in Figure 1 shows the ejection rate as a function of $`v_\mathrm{h}`$, which is obtained from the bold solid line using equations (15) and (16).

The ejection rate of stars at speeds $`>100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is about (1–2)$`\times 10^8\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at the outer edge of the bulge and about $`2\times 10^9\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at the solar radius; the ejection rate of stars at speeds $`>500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is only $`10^9\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at the edge of the bulge and a factor of three lower at the solar radius; and the ejection rate at speeds $`>1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is only $`10^{11}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at either location. We conclude that the expected rate of formation of hypervelocity stars in the Galaxy due to two-body close encounters of single stars is negligible.

Finally, to illustrate the importance of the BH, we show the ejection rate from a stellar system with the same density distribution as that in the Galactic center but without a central BH (the dot-dashed line in Figure 1). The existence of a central BH dramatically increases the rate of ejecting hypervelocity stars.

### 3.2 Tidal breakup of a binary star by the central BH

It is plausible that binary stars are formed as commonly near the Galactic center as they are in the solar neighborhood. Close encounters between a close binary and a massive BH may break up the binary through an exchange collision, in which one binary component becomes bound to the BH and the other is ejected at high velocity (up to several thousand $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$; Hills 1988; Gould & Quillen 2003).

We shall focus on binaries in the semimajor axis range $`0.01\mathrm{AU}<a_\mathrm{b}<0.3\mathrm{AU}`$; $`0.01\mathrm{AU}`$ is nearly $`2R_{}`$ and thus is a lower limit to the binary separation for solar-type stars, and the choice of an upper limit of $`0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ will be explained later. The binary period distribution observed locally by Duquennoy & Mayor (1991) implies that roughly 8% of binaries belong to this period range; given that the fraction of stars in binaries is $`0.5`$ we expect that the binary fraction in the semimajor axis range $`0.01\mathrm{AU}<a_\mathrm{b}<0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ is about $`0.04`$. This estimate is quite uncertain, both because the estimate derived for the solar neighborhood is uncertain and because we do not know whether the binary distribution is the same at the Galactic center as it is in the solar neighborhood.

We must first check that these binaries are not disrupted by encounters with single stars. The disruption time is (Binney & Tremaine, 1987)

$$t_{\mathrm{dis}}=0.1\frac{\sigma }{G\rho a_\mathrm{b}\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$
(17)
where $`\rho `$ is the density of stars (eq. 5), $`a_\mathrm{b}`$ is the semimajor axis of the binary, $`\sigma `$ is the velocity dispersion, $`\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the Coulomb logarithm, and we have assumed that the binary components and the field stars have the same mass. In the region $`r1\mathrm{pc}`$ where the gravitational potential is dominated by the BH, we may take $`\sigma (GM_{}/r)^{1/2}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(M_{}/m_{})(a_\mathrm{b}/r)`$, so that

$$t_{\mathrm{dis}}=\frac{4\times 10^{10}\mathrm{yr}}{\mathrm{ln}[1.7(a_\mathrm{b}/0.1\mathrm{AU})(1\mathrm{pc}/r)]}\left(\frac{r}{1\mathrm{pc}}\right)^{1.3}\left(\frac{0.1\mathrm{AU}}{a_\mathrm{b}}\right).$$
(18)
This formula is derived for soft binaries, for which $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$; a similar result holds for hard binaries, except that $`\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is replaced by unity, and $`t_{\mathrm{dis}}`$ represents the timescale in which the semimajor axis shrinks by a factor of two due to encounters. We conclude that binaries with semimajor axis $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ can survive for the age of the Galaxy outside $`r0.8\mathrm{pc}`$, while binaries with $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.01\mathrm{AU}`$ can survive outside $`r0.05\mathrm{pc}`$.

We now review Hills’ (1988) three-body simulations of the encounter between a binary and a massive BH. The center of mass of the binary is initially on an unbound orbit relative to the BH, with velocity $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$. The probability of an exchange collision is a decreasing function of the dimensionless closest-approach parameter

$$R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}\frac{R_{\mathrm{min}}}{a_\mathrm{b}}\left(\frac{M_{}}{m_{}}\right)^{1/3};$$
(19)
here we have assumed for simplicity that $`m_1=m_2=m_{}`$, and $`R_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is the closest approach of the binary to the BH (the periapsis of the orbit of the center of mass of the binary around the BH). The parameter $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}`$ is essentially the distance of closest approach in units of the Roche radius of the binary. Hills finds that exchange collisions occur in nearly 80% of encounters with $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}0.3`$ and in 50% of encounters with $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}1`$. Let us define an ejection speed parameter by (eqs. 1 and 3)

$$v_{}^{}v_{}\left(\frac{m_{}}{M_{}}\right)^{1/6}\left(\frac{a_\mathrm{b}}{0.1\mathrm{AU}}\frac{\mathrm{M}_{}}{m_{}}\right)^{1/2},$$
(20)
where $`v_{}`$ is the rms velocity at infinity of the ejected star. Then $`v_{}^{}`$ is mainly a function of $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}`$, and roughly independent of the BH mass and the semimajor axis and masses of the binary components. The velocity $`v_{}^{}`$ varies between 130 and $`160\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}=0`$–1, with a peak near $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}0.3`$, and is about $`130\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}=1`$ (Hills, 1988).

These results are independent of the initial relative velocity $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$ of the binary relative to the BH. This assumption is correct so long as this is much less than the relative velocity at $`R_{\mathrm{min}}`$, which in turn requires that222The dependence of the exchange cross-section on $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$ is mapped out in more extensive three-body integrations by Hills (1991), although Hills’ empirical summary of the results is based on the assumption that the critical velocity scales as $`M_{}^{1/6}`$, not $`M_{}^{1/3}`$ as in equation (21).

$$v_{\mathrm{}}\left(\frac{Gm_{}}{a_\mathrm{b}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{M_{}}{m_{}}\right)^{1/3}.$$
(21)
For the Galaxy this limit corresponds to $`v_{\mathrm{}}1.4\times 10^4\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1(0.1\mathrm{AU}/a_\mathrm{b})^{1/2}`$, which is satisfied by a large margin. Similarly, Hills’ results for the probability of an exchange collision should be valid for orbits that are bound to the BH so long as the orbits are very eccentric, that is, $`R_{\mathrm{min}}a`$ where $`a`$ is the semimajor axis of the orbit around the BH.

For numerical estimates we assume that both binary components have the solar mass. According to equation (19), for a binary to have an exchange probability of 50% or more in an encounter with a $`3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ BH, it must pass within about $`R_{\mathrm{min}}150a_\mathrm{b}`$ of the BH; that is, within $`R_{\mathrm{min}}=1.5`$ or $`45\mathrm{AU}`$ for $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.01`$ and $`0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ respectively. The rms ejection speed at infinity $`v_{}`$ in this case is about $`5\times 10^3`$ or $`0.9\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for $`a_\mathrm{b}`$=0.01 or $`0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ respectively. These ejection speeds for $`a_\mathrm{b}0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ are high enough to escape the Galactic bulge and even the Galactic halo, which is why we restrict our attention to this range of binary semimajor axis.

The ejection rate depends on the flux of binary stars passing close to the central BH, specifically, within a periapsis distance $`R_{\mathrm{min}}150a_\mathrm{b}`$. The region in the $`(J,E)=`$(specific angular momentum, specific energy) phase space where a binary star has dimensionless closest approach parameter $`R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}1`$ is called the “loss cone” and is given by:

$$J^2J_{\mathrm{lc}}^2(E,a_\mathrm{b})2R_{\mathrm{min}}^2\left[E\mathrm{\Phi }(R_{\mathrm{min}})\right]2GM_{}R_{\mathrm{min}}(|E|GM_{}/R_{\mathrm{min}}).$$
(22)
\[Note that the concept of the “loss cone” is used in other contexts, for example, see Magorrian & Tremaine (1999) for the tidal disruption of single stars by a massive BH or Yu (2002) and §3.3 for the expulsion of low-angular momentum stars by a BBH. The loss cone for disruption of single stars is usually much smaller than the loss cone for disruption of binary stars.\] At first, the ejection rate is determined by the rate of depletion of the initial population of binary stars in the loss cone, and the rate per unit energy is given by (see eq. 19 in Yu 2002):

$$F^{\mathrm{full}}(E,a_\mathrm{b})4\pi ^2\eta f(E)J_{\mathrm{lc}}^2(E,a_\mathrm{b}),tP(E),$$
(23)
where $`P(E)`$ is the radial period of an orbit with energy $`E`$ and zero angular momentum, and $`\eta `$ is the number fraction of binary stars. As the binary stars in the loss cone are disrupted, new binaries are scattered into the loss cone by two-body relaxation. Eventually, the scattering into the loss cone reaches a steady state. The steady-state diffusion rate of binary stars into the loss cone per unit energy is obtained from the Fokker-Planck equation (eq. 24 in Magorrian & Tremaine 1999):

$$F_{\mathrm{lc}}(E)\{\begin{array}{cc}qF^{\mathrm{full}}(E,a_\mathrm{b})/\mathrm{ln}[GM_{}/(4|E|R_{\mathrm{min}})],\hfill & \text{if }q\mathrm{ln}(J_{\mathrm{lc}}^2/J_\mathrm{c}^2)\hfill \\ F^{\mathrm{full}}(E,a_\mathrm{b}),\hfill & \text{if }q\mathrm{ln}(J_{\mathrm{lc}}^2/J_\mathrm{c}^2)\hfill \end{array},$$
(24)
where

$$qP(E)\overline{\mu }(E)J_\mathrm{c}^2(E)/J_{\mathrm{lc}}^2(E,a_\mathrm{b}).$$
(25)
Here $`\overline{\mu }`$ is the orbit-averaged diffusion coefficient and $`J_\mathrm{c}^2(E)`$ is the specific angular momentum of a circular orbit at energy $`E`$. The quantity $`\frac{1}{2}qJ_{\mathrm{lc}}^2`$ is the mean-square change in the scalar angular momentum for a nearly radial orbit in one orbital period; $`\frac{1}{2}qJ_{\mathrm{lc}}^2=P(E)(\mathrm{\Delta }J)^2=P(E)r^2(\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{t})^2`$, where $``$ denotes an orbit-averaged diffusion coefficient and $`v_\mathrm{t}`$ is the tangential velocity (see details in Appendix B of Magorrian & Tremaine 1999). The region in which $`q\mathrm{ln}(J_{\mathrm{lc}}^2/J_\mathrm{c}^2)`$ is known as the “pinhole” or “full loss cone” regime, as opposed to the “diffusion” or “empty loss cone” regime. Generally the loss cone is full at large radii and empty at small radii, we shall define the critical radius $`r_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ to be the apoapsis of orbits at the transition between these two regimes. The critical radius $`r_{\mathrm{crit}}600\mathrm{pc}`$ for $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.3\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`20\mathrm{pc}`$ for $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.01\mathrm{AU}`$.

We can use the model for the Galactic center described in §2 to estimate the ejection rate due to disruption of binary stars. As usual we assume that the DF is isotropic in velocity space, and that it vanishes for energy $`E\mathrm{\Phi }_{}(r=0)E<G\mathrm{M}_{}/\mathrm{R}_{}`$ (without this cutoff the ejection rate for a full loss cone diverges). If the binary loss cone is full, the ejection rate is given by equation (23):

$`n_{\mathrm{ej}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle F^{\mathrm{full}}(E)dE}`$ (26)
$``$ $`8\pi ^2\eta GM_{}R_{\mathrm{min}}C{\displaystyle _{G\mathrm{M}_{}/\mathrm{R}_{}}^0}|E|^{\alpha 3/2}dE`$
$``$ $`2\times 10^2\mathrm{yr}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{a_\mathrm{b}}{0.1\mathrm{AU}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{R_{\mathrm{min}}^{}}{1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{}}{3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}}\right)^{4/3\alpha },`$
which is approximately consistent with the estimate $`10^2(\eta /0.1)(a_\mathrm{b}/0.1\mathrm{AU})`$ in Hills (1988), based on much less certain observational parameters. However, this calculation, like Hills’, neglects the fact that the binaries initially in the loss cone are rapidly depleted. For a more accurate ejection rate we must use equation (24), which yields

$$n_{\mathrm{ej}}=F_{\mathrm{lc}}(E)dE1.5\times 10^5(\eta /0.1)\mathrm{yr}^1$$
(27)
if $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.3\mathrm{AU}`$. The ejection rate is quite insensitive to the binary semimajor axis $`a_\mathrm{b}`$, decreasing to only $`n_{\mathrm{ej}}=0.9\times 10^5(\eta /0.1)\mathrm{yr}^1`$ if $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.01\mathrm{AU}`$. The apoapsides of most of the stars contributing to the total diffusion rate into the loss cone are in the range 2–3$`\mathrm{pc}`$ for $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.01`$$`0.3\mathrm{AU}`$; at these radii the binary disruption rate due to encounters with field stars (eq. 18) is small. Because the loss cone is not full, Hills’ simple estimate of the ejection rate is too large by three orders of magnitude at $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.1\mathrm{AU}`$.

The time required for the ejected stars to travel a distance $`D`$ is by:

$`t_\mathrm{D}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{D}{v_{}}}=5\times 10^6\mathrm{yr}\left({\displaystyle \frac{D}{8\mathrm{kpc}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1.6\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}{v_{}}}\right)`$ (29)
$``$ $`5\times 10^6\mathrm{yr}\left({\displaystyle \frac{D}{8\mathrm{kpc}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1.3\times 10^2\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}{v_{}^{}}}\right)`$
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}{M_{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_{}}{\mathrm{M}_{}}}\right)^{1/6}\left({\displaystyle \frac{a_\mathrm{b}}{0.1\mathrm{AU}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{M}_{}}{m_{}}}\right)^{1/2},`$
where $`v_{}^{}`$ is the ejection speed parameter defined in equation (20). From equations (27) and (29), the number of hypervelocity stars inside the sphere with radius $`D`$ is given by:

$$n_{\mathrm{ej}}t_\mathrm{D}60\left(\frac{\eta }{0.1}\right)\left(\frac{D}{8\mathrm{kpc}}\right)\left(\frac{a_\mathrm{b}}{0.1\mathrm{AU}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{\mathrm{M}_{}}{m_{}}\right)^{1/3}.$$
(30)
In this process, one component of the binary star is ejected with an energy gain, and the other loses energy and becomes more tightly bound to the BH. The apoapsis distance of the bound star is approximately $`GM_{}/v_{}^21\times 10^3\mathrm{AU}(M_{}/3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{})(1.6\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1/v_{})^2`$. The eccentricity of the bound star is usually high, and the corresponding orbital period is $`8\mathrm{yr}(M_{}/3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{})(1.6\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1/v_{})^3`$. Recent high-resolution infrared observations of the region around the compact radio source (and presumed BH) $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ have revealed massive young stars on high-eccentricity orbits with periods of decades or less (Schödel et al., 2002, 2003; Eisenhauer et al., 2003; Ghez et al., 2003a, b, c). Gould & Quillen (2003) have suggested that these unusual orbits may have been produced by Hills’ mechanism; that is, these stars may be one component of a tidally disrupted binary star. According to equation (27), we expect that the number of young ($`10^7\mathrm{yr}`$ old) stars that are the remnants of tidally disrupted binaries should be $`100(\eta /0.1)`$ at any time. Of course, the number of high-mass remnants would be smaller, by an amount that depends on the shape of the initial mass function.

### 3.3 Interactions between a single star and a massive BBH

BBHs are likely to exist in some galactic centers (Begelman, Blandford & Rees, 1980; Yu, 2002), and perhaps in the Galactic center as well. In fact, Hansen & Milosavljević (2003) have recently argued that the young stars observed at 0.1–1 $`\mathrm{mpc}`$ distances from $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ may have been shorn from a disk or cluster surrounding the smaller component of a BBH, by tidal forces from the larger component. A massive BBH steadily loses orbital energy to the surrounding stellar population. When the two BHs are orbiting independently in the galaxy, and even after they form a bound binary system, the energy loss is mainly through dynamical friction. Once the BBH becomes sufficiently tightly bound that its orbital velocity exceeds the velocity dispersion of the stars, dynamical friction becomes less and less effective, and three-body interactions with low-angular momentum stars passing through the BBH become the dominant energy-loss mechanism. When the BBH becomes “hard”, at a semimajor axis (Quinlan, 1996)

$$a_\mathrm{h}\frac{GM_2}{4\sigma _\mathrm{c}^2}0.04\mathrm{pc}\left(\frac{\nu }{0.1}\right)\left(\frac{M_1+M_2}{3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}\right)\left(\frac{100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}{\sigma _\mathrm{c}}\right)^2,$$
(31)
where

$$\nu M_2/(M_1+M_2)$$
(32)
is the mass ratio of the small BH to the BBH, most of the low-angular momentum stars that pass near a BBH will eventually be expelled with an energy gain after one or several encounters with the BBH. In such expulsions, the average ejection speed of the stars is

$$v_{}\sqrt{\frac{3.2GM_1M_2}{(M_1+M_2)a_{}}}2.2\times 10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\left(\frac{\nu }{0.1}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{1\mathrm{mpc}}{a_{}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{M_1}{3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}\right)^{1/2}$$
(33)
(see eq. 17 in Yu 2002). The average relative energy change $`\mathrm{\Delta }/`$ per ejection is independent of the BBH orbital energy $``$. As the semimajor axis of the BBH continues to decrease, eventually gravitational radiation takes over as the dominant energy loss mechanism.

We now ask what are the observational constraints on the mass ratio $`\nu `$ and semimajor axis $`a_{}`$ of a possible BBH in the Galactic center. We shall assume that the total mass $`M_1+M_2=3.5\times 10^6M_{}`$, that the BBH is on a circular orbit, and that $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ is the larger component $`M_1`$ of the BBH. (We shall argue below that $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ is unlikely to be the small component of the BBH.) For reference, the orbital period of the BBH is

$$P_{\mathrm{BBH}}=\frac{2\pi a_{}^{3/2}}{\sqrt{G(M_1+M_2)}}1.6\mathrm{yr}\left(\frac{a_{}}{1\mathrm{mpc}}\right)^{3/2}\left(\frac{3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}{M_1+M_2}\right)^{1/2}$$
(34)
There are several constraints on the properties of the BBH:

* A census of stars within $`10\mathrm{}0.4\mathrm{pc}`$ of the Galactic center reveals that the peak of the stellar surface density agrees with the position of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ within $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}28\mathrm{mpc}`$ (Genzel et al., 2003). Taking the center of mass of the BBH as the center of the stellar distribution, and ignoring the small possibility that the two BHs are aligned along the line of sight to us, we have the following constraint on the distance between $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ and the center of mass of the BBH:

$$\nu a_{}0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}28\mathrm{mpc}.$$
(35)
In panel (b) of Figure 2, the region below the bold long-dashed line gives the parameter space represented by inequality (35).
* The eccentric Keplerian orbits of stars at radii $`r0.1`$$`1\mathrm{mpc}`$ (Schödel et al., 2002, 2003; Ghez et al., 2003a, b, c) will eventually provide strong constraints on the properties of a BBH at the Galactic center. However, a binary with semimajor axis small compared to the periapsis distance of the stellar orbit, or large compared to the apoapsis distance, will be poorly constrained because the orbit will be nearly a Keplerian ellipse, with one focus at either the center of mass or one component of the BBH, respectively. Moreover, so far these stars have only been observed for a fraction of an orbital period, so the sensitivity to deviations from a Keplerian orbit is still relatively small (but growing rapidly). Without carrying out proper simulations, we guess that the agreement of the observations to date with orbits around a single point mass constrains the mass fraction to be $`\nu 0.2`$ if $`a_{}`$ is in the range $`0.1`$$`1\mathrm{mpc}`$. According to this constraint, the BBH is unlikely to be in the box enclosed by the dot-long-dashed line near the right boundary of panel (b) of Figure 2.
* Observations of the proper motion of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ also constrain the parameter space $`(a_{},\nu )`$ of a putative BBH in the Galactic center. VLBA observations from 1995 to 2000 show that the dominant term in the proper motion of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ with respect to extragalactic radio sources comes from the motion of the Sun around the Galactic center. The rms residual from uniform motion is $`\mathrm{\Delta }0.5\mathrm{mas}=0.02\mathrm{mpc}`$, and the upper limit of the peculiar motion of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ perpendicular to the Galactic plane is $`v_{}8\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Backer & Sramek, 1999; Reid et al., 1999, 2003). We do not know the motion of the Sun in the Galactic plane with comparable accuracy, but unless the peculiar velocity of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ happens to be closely aligned with the Galactic plane, it is unlikely to be larger than $`\sqrt{2}v_{}v_{\mathrm{max}}12\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. If the orbital period of the BBH $`P_{\mathrm{BBH}}`$ (eq. 34) is short compared to the observation interval $`T=5\mathrm{yr}`$, then the amplitude of the motion of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ relative to the center of mass of the BBH must be smaller than the rms observational error, that is,

$$\nu a_{}f\mathrm{\Delta },$$
(36)
where $`f`$ is of order unity. In the opposite limit, if $`P_{\mathrm{BBH}}T`$ then the velocity of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ relative to the center of mass must be less than $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$, so

$$\nu a_{}fv_{\mathrm{max}}P_{\mathrm{BBH}}/(2\pi ).$$
(37)
We set $`f2`$ and simply choose the transition between inequalities (36) and (37) so that they are continuous. In panel (b) of Figure 2, the region on the left side of the bold solid line gives the parameter space allowed by inequalities (36) and (37) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5\mathrm{mas}`$ and $`v_{\mathrm{max}}=12\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Reid et al., 2003).

The rate of ejecting stars by interactions with a hard BBH depends on the flux of low angular momentum stars passing through the vicinity of the BBH. Just as in the case of the loss cone of binary stars discussed in §3.2, here the region in the (specific energy, specific angular momentum) phase space in which a star can pass within $`a_{}`$ of the BBH is called the loss cone, and may be found by replacing $`R_{\mathrm{min}}`$ with the semimajor axis of the BBH in equation (22) (see Yu 2002). Initially, the loss cone of the BBH is full. As stars are removed from the loss cone by close encounters with the BBH, new stars refill the loss cone by two-body relaxation (or by non-axisymmetric gravitational forces from the surrounding stellar system, if it is non-spherical; see Yu 2002). Eventually the system reaches a steady state controlled by the balance between the ejection rate of stars and the rate at which stars refill the loss cone. If the rms angular momentum transfered to or from the stars per orbital period is larger than $`J_{\mathrm{lc}}`$ (see eq. 22), then the stars will refill the loss cone as fast as it is depleted and the loss cone remains full; otherwise, the stars will slowly diffuse into the loss cone and the loss cone remains nearly empty. The refilling rate due to two-body relaxation can be found by solving the steady-state Fokker-Planck equation (e.g. eq. 17 in Magorrian & Tremaine 1999 or see Yu 2002). If the BBH is hard and has a total mass $`3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$, our calculations show that the rate of removing stars from the loss cone is $`n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{full}}2\mathrm{yr}^1(a_{}/1\mathrm{mpc})`$ when the loss cone is full and $`n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{diff}}`$(1–3)$`\times 10^4\mathrm{yr}^1`$ when the loss cone is empty; the superscript “diff” refers to the fact that the refilling of the loss cone is a diffusive process. The rate $`n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{full}}`$ is insensitive to the BBH mass ratio $`\nu `$, and the rate $`n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{diff}}`$ is insensitive to both $`a_{}`$ (only through the logarithmic term in eq. 24) and $`\nu `$, so long as the BBH is hard and the mass of the smaller component of the BBH is significantly larger than the stellar mass (Quinlan’s 1996 simulations only cover the range $`\nu >0.004`$ but his finding that the hardening is largely independent of $`\nu `$ should extend to more extreme mass ratios). The hardening timescale of the BBH is then given by (see eq. 33):

$$t_\mathrm{h}(a_{})=\left|\frac{a_{}}{\dot{a}_{}}\right|\frac{M_1+M_2}{3m_{}n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{diff}}}6\times 10^9\mathrm{yr}\left(\frac{M_1+M_2}{3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}}\right)\left(\frac{1\mathrm{M}_{}}{m_{}}\right)\left(\frac{2\times 10^4\mathrm{yr}^1}{n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{diff}}}\right),$$
(38)
which is shown as a function of $`a_{}`$ and $`\nu `$ in Figure 2 (see the solid horizontal lines in panels c and d, which represent 4, 6, $`8\times 10^9\mathrm{yr}`$ from top to bottom). Assuming that the BBH orbit is circular, its gravitational radiation timescale is given by (Peters, 1964):

$$t_{\mathrm{gr}}(a_{},\nu )=\left|\frac{a_{}}{\dot{a}_{}}\right|=\frac{5}{64}\frac{c^5a_{}^4}{G^3M_1M_2(M_1+M_2)}5.4\times 10^8\mathrm{yr}\left(\frac{a_{}}{1\mathrm{mpc}}\right)^4\frac{(3.5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{})^3}{(M_1+M_2)^2M_1}\left(\frac{0.1}{\nu }\right),$$
(39)
which is also shown in panels (c) and (d) of Figure 2 (the long-dashed lines, which represent $`10^9,10^8,10^7\mathrm{yr}`$ from top to bottom). A similar diagram to panel (c) is shown in Hansen & Milosavljević (2003). The BBH loses energy mainly by interacting with stars when $`t_{\mathrm{gr}}(a_{},\nu )>t_\mathrm{h}(a_{})`$ and mainly by gravitational radiation when $`t_{\mathrm{gr}}(a_{},\nu )<t_\mathrm{h}(a_{})`$.

If we do not live at a special time, the lifetime of the BBH orbit, $`\mathrm{min}(t_\mathrm{h},t_{\mathrm{gr}})`$, should exceed $`\nu \times 10^{10}\mathrm{yr}`$ (i.e. at most, the central BH should accrete a fraction $`\nu `$ of its mass in a fraction $`\nu `$ of its age). This constraint is shown as the bold long-dashed line in panels (c) and (d) of Figure 2. We may combine this with the constraints from the position of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ (inequality 35), the near-Keplerian orbits of stars close to $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$, and the proper motion of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ (inequalities 36 37), to conclude that the BBH should not be located in the dotted region in panel (d) of Figure 2. Note that we have assumed that $`M_1`$ coincides with $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ and is the larger component of the BBH, so that $`\nu `$ cannot exceed 0.5 (eq. 32). However, if we relax this constraint, that is, if $`\nu `$ is allowed to exceed 0.5, we may extend the above constraints on the BBH parameter space and find that the forbidden region in Figure 2(d) excludes the range $`0.5<\nu <1`$. Thus, $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ cannot be the smaller component of the BBH.

The bold dot-short-dashed line in Figure 2 (panels a and d) represents the semimajor axis at which the BBH becomes hard, given by equation (31). The average ejection velocity $`v_{}`$ as a function of $`a_{}`$ and $`\nu `$ is shown by short-dashed lines in these panels (these represent $`v_{}=400`$$`2000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ with interval $`\delta v_{}=200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ from top to bottom, with $`v_{}=1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ shown in bold). Some short-dashed lines with $`v_{}>1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ cross the allowed region of panel (d), and hence there are allowed parameters for a BBH that could eject hypervelocity stars that reach the solar radius.

Thus, for example, consider a BBH with $`\nu =0.01`$ and $`a_{}=0.5\mathrm{mpc}`$. This has orbital period $`P_{\mathrm{BBH}}0.6\mathrm{yr}`$, gravitational radiation timescale $`t_{\mathrm{gr}}4\times 10^8\mathrm{yr}`$, and distance of $`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ from the center of mass of 0.1 mas, consistent with the observational constraints we have described. The time for a hypervelocity star to travel $`D=8\mathrm{kpc}`$ is $`t_D8\times 10^6\mathrm{yr}(D/8\mathrm{kpc})(10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1/v_{})`$ (eq. 29). Since $`t_\mathrm{D}\mathrm{min}(t_\mathrm{h},t_{\mathrm{gr}})`$, we can ignore the BBH orbital evolution, so the number of stars with ejection speed higher than $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ within the sphere $`D<8\mathrm{kpc}`$ can be roughly estimated to be $`n_{\mathrm{BBH}}^{\mathrm{diff}}t_\mathrm{D}10^3`$.

## 4 Discussion and conclusions

We have studied stellar dynamical processes that eject hypervelocity ($`>10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) stars from the Galactic center. We consider three mechanisms of ejecting stars: close encounters of two single stars, tidal breakup of binary stars, and three-body interactions between a star and a BBH.

The rate of ejection from close encounters of single stars is strongly affected by the finite size of stars: Figure 1 shows that this rate is $`10^5`$ times smaller for solar-type stars than for point masses with the same radial distribution. For solar-type stars, the rate of ejection with speed $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at $`R_0=8\mathrm{kpc}`$ is only $`10^{11}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, which is too low to be detectable. If there is a distribution of stellar masses, the ejection rate is likely to be larger for the lighter stars (Hénon, 1969), but these also have lower luminosity and thus are harder to detect.

The rate of ejection from breakup of binary stars (Hills, 1988) depends on the orbital parameters of the binaries, such as the semimajor axis and component masses. We estimate that the rate of ejecting hypervelocity stars is $`10^5(\eta /0.1)\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (eq. 27), where $`\eta `$ is the binary fraction and the result is only weakly dependent on semimajor axis for $`a_\mathrm{b}0.3\mathrm{AU}`$. This rate is also not strongly dependent on the stellar mass distribution. With the assumption that the binary components have the same mass $`m_{}`$, the number of hypervelocity stars within the solar radius is $`100`$ for $`\eta =0.1`$ and $`a_\mathrm{b}=0.1\mathrm{AU}`$ (eq. 30).

$`\mathrm{Sgr}\mathrm{A}^{}`$ may be one component of a BBH (Hansen & Milosavljević, 2003). We discuss the constraints on the parameter space (mass ratio and semimajor axis) of the BBH using a variety of observational and theoretical arguments. The ejection speed of stars due to three-body interactions with the BBH depends on the BBH semimajor axis and mass ratio, but not on stellar mass. In part of the allowed parameter space, near $`a_{}=0.5\mathrm{mpc}`$ and $`\nu =0.01`$, the average stellar ejection speed can exceed $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (see panel (d) of Fig. 2), and the rate of ejecting hypervelocity stars is $`10^4\mathrm{yr}^1`$. In this case the expected number of stars with ejection speeds higher than $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ within the solar radius $`r<8\mathrm{kpc}`$ is $`10^3`$.

Nearby high-velocity halo stars bound to the Galaxy cannot have velocities that exceed the local escape speed. Recent estimates of the escape speed are $`550\pm 100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Leonard & Tremaine, 1990), $`610\pm 120\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Kochanek, 1996), and $`600\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Wilkinson & Evans, 1999), well below our cutoff at $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, so it is unlikely that bound halo stars can appear to be hypervelocity stars. Rare Local Group interlopers, perhaps from M31, could have velocities exceeding the escape speed. However, hypervelocity stars ejected from the Galactic center have an additional distinctive kinematic signature, since their velocity vectors should point almost directly away from the Galactic center (apart from small changes induced by the non-spherical component of the Galactic potential).

Hypervelocity stars produced at the Galactic center should also be distinguishable from runaway stars produced by supernova explosions in close binary systems or by close encounters in star clusters (Leonard, 1993), which will have quite different velocity distributions.

At a distance of $`10\mathrm{kpc}`$, a solar-type star traveling at $`10^3\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ has apparent magnitude $`V=19.8`$ and proper motion $`20\mathrm{mas}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. Ground-based surveys can achieve proper-motion accuracies of $`1\mathrm{mas}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ with multiple images over baselines of a few years (Alard, 2003). Planned ground-based surveys such as Pan-STARRS and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, with limiting magnitude $`V24`$, could easily detect and measure the proper motion of solar-type hypervelocity stars over much of the Galaxy. The GAIA spacecraft will survey the whole sky to $`V=20`$ with proper-motion accuracy of $`0.1\mathrm{mas}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ or better at its limiting magnitude.

In Hills’ mechanism, one component of the binary star is ejected, and the other is thrown onto a high-eccentricity orbit around the central BH (Gould & Quillen, 2003). We expect that the number of young ($`10^7\mathrm{yr}`$ old) stars that are the remnants of tidally disrupted binaries should be $`100(\eta /0.1)`$ at any time.

Hypervelocity stars produced by Hills’ mechanism should be approximately spherically distributed, while the spatial distribution of the hypervelocity stars due to interactions with the BBH should be flattened in the orbital plane of the BBH (see Zier & Biermann 2001).

Support for this research was provided in part by NASA through grants from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract NAS5-26555.