Galactic merger implications for eccentric nuclear discs: a mechanism for disc alignment

ABSTRACT The nucleus of our nearest, large galactic neighbour, M31, contains an eccentric nuclear disc – a stars on eccentric, apsidally aligned orbits around supermassive black hole (SMBH). Previous studies discs considered only isolated disc, and did not study their dynamics under galaxy mergers (particularly perturbing SMBH). Here, we present the first how are affected by merger. We perform N-body simulations to range different possible SMBH initial conditions. A second in always disrupts it, but more distant SMBHs can shut off differential precession stabilize disc. This results nearly uniform eccentricity profile, suppression tidal disruption events compared also discuss implications work for presence secondary M31.