Stellar Relaxation Processes Near the Galactic Massive Black Hole

Understand

The massive black hole (MBH) in the Galactic Center and the stars around it form a unique stellar dynamics laboratory for studying how relaxation processes affect the distribution of stars and compact remnants and lead to close interactions between them and the MBH.

• Recent theoretical studies suggest that processes beyond "minimal" two-body relaxation may operate and even dominate relaxation and its consequences in the Galactic Center.
• I describe loss-cone refilling by massive perturbers, strong mass segregation and resonant relaxation; review observational evidence that these processes play a role in the Galactic Center; and discuss some cosmic implications for the rates of gravitational wave emission events from compact remnants inspiraling into MBHs, and the coalescence timescales of binary MBHs.