Making massive stars in the Galactic Centre via accretion onto low-mass stars within an accretion disc

Understand

The origin of the population of very massive stars observed within $\sim 0.4$ pc of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Centre is a mystery.

• Tidal forces from the black hole would likely inhibit {\it in situ} star formation whilst the youth of the massive stars would seem to exclude formation elsewhere followed by transportation (somehow) into the Galactic centre.
• Here we consider a third way to produce these massive stars from the lower-mass stars contained in the nuclear stellar cluster which surrounds the supermassive black hole.
• A passing gas cloud can be tidally shredded by the supermassive black hole forming an accretion disc around the black hole.