Black Hole's Spin Reshapes Dynamics at Galactic Center

Published on January 15, 2026 | Translated from Spanish
Artistic illustration showing a rotating supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, with a bright accretion disk and stars orbiting in complex and chaotic trajectories around it, influenced by its powerful spin.

The Black Hole's Spin Reorganizes Dynamics in the Galactic Center

Galaxy cores are extreme environments where a supermassive black hole governs gravity. This object interacts with a dense stellar cluster, gas clouds, and irregular mass distributions. To simulate this complex system, researchers use a multipolar expansion potential. This model combines a pseudo-Newtonian potential for the black hole, which includes the effects of its rotation, with an axisymmetric mass halo described up to the third multipolar order. This approach is key to exploring nonlinear dynamics and the frequent chaotic orbital behavior in these regions. 🌀

Analyzing Stability and Mapping Convergence Basins

This work expands on previous research by incorporating two powerful tools. First, a stability analysis around equilibrium points, which allows understanding local orbital behavior. Second, the calculation of convergence basins, which reveal how the system responds to initial conditions and expose fractal boundaries between different dynamic destinies. These methods provide a comprehensive view of the system's architecture, demonstrating that minimal variations in initial position or velocity can trigger completely different trajectories.

Key Findings from the Model:
  • The black hole's spin parameter is a decisive factor that modifies the global phase space.
  • It can amplify the chaotic scattering generated by the halo's asymmetry or, conversely, stabilize specific orbital families.
  • The interaction between the mass multipolar moments and the relativistic effects of the spin governs the global dynamics of the galactic core.
Understanding this interaction is fundamental for interpreting observations of active galactic nuclei and accretion processes.

The Decisive Impact of the Black Hole's Rotation

The results underscore that the magnitude and orientation of the central black hole's spin have a profound influence. This combined effect is not trivial: it can reorganize the entire surrounding stellar and gaseous neighborhood. Understanding this physics is essential for linking theoretical simulations with observational data from the most active and violent galactic centers.

Implications for Studying Galactic Nuclei:
  • Provides a framework for modeling stellar and gas dynamics near the

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