The Silk Road Project team is involved in several research projects. Some of them are briefly listed here. Please click on them for further information (you can also email us directly).
Dynamical interactions of supermassive black hole binaries with background stars in merging galaxies before and after the coalescence - We study the dynamical co-evolution of SMBHB and its surrounding stars in gas poor environment, specially focus on the evolution of stellar tidal disruption rates in the galactic nuclei before and after the coalescence of the SMBHB - Shuo Li, Rainer Spurzem, Peter Berczik
Tidal disruption of stars by SMBHs in galactic nuclei - We investigate the disruption process using N-body simulations. Measure the disruption rate, orbital parameters and do predictions based on our results - Shiyan Zhong, Rainer Spurzem, Peter Berczik, Shuo Li, Philip Cho
Star-disc interactions around SMBHs - One expects that SMBHs in galactic nuclei should harbour both stars and gas. The former can be modelled as a star cluster while the latter most likely forms a disc around the central object. The evolution of mass and spin of the central SMBH depends crucially on the way mass is accreted through the disc, which, in turns, depends not only on the disc properties but also on the star-disc interaction - Rainer Spurzem, Peter Berczik, Andreas Just, Lars Starbaty
Evolution of Planetary Systems in Star Clusters - We investigate the dynamical evolution, stability, of planetary systems in star clusters; evolution of free floating planets; formation of Hot Jupiters - Francesco Flammini Dotti, Leonard Benkendorff, Rainer Spurzem (in SPP1992 of German Science Foundation, on Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets)
Star cluster dynamics and high energy phenomena - The interaction between stars and an accretion disk in the galactic centre is important for determining the rates of high energy events, such as x-ray flares (or gravitational waves) coming from the tidal disruption of stars (or compact remnants). Also of great research interest is the role of stellar dynamics around massive black holes as the engines of active galactic nuclei and black hole growth during galaxy formation - Rainer Spurzem, Peter Berczik, Andreas Just, Lars Starbaty
Triple Black Holes MPA - Dynamics of Triple Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei with NBODY6++ / MPA Garching Silk Road Collaboration - Wei Hao, Peter Berczik, Rainer Spurzem, Thijs Kouwenhoven
This is a very short description; for more detailed information you can email us, and please have a look at our publications.