The electrodynamic 'snake' at the Galactic Centre

Dynamics of the Bar at the Galactic Centre

Dark stars at the Galactic centre – the main sequence

In regions of very high dark matter density such as the Galactic centre, the capture and annihilation of WIMP dark matter by stars has the potential to significantly alter their evolution. We describe the dark stellar evolution code DarkStars, and present a series of detailed grids of WIMP-influenced stellar models for main sequence stars. We describe the changes in stellar structure and main s...

The Galactic centre region

We have observed the central 45 region of the Galaxy at 620 MHz band of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in radio continuum, and measured the polarisation properties of 64 small diameter background extragalactic sources seen through the −6< l <6, −2< b <2 region with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Very Large Array (VLA). Our 620 MHz observations show that Sgr A* ...

Hypervelocity Collisions of Binary Stars at the Galactic Centre

Recent surveys have identified seven hypervelocity stars (HVSs) in the halo of the Milky Way. Most of these stars may have originated from the breakup of binary star systems by the nuclear black hole SgrA*. In some instances, the breakup of the binary may lead to a collision between its member stars. We examine the dynamical properties of these collisions by simulating thousands of different bi...

Studies of molecular clouds at the Galactic centre

Interstellar molecular clouds play an essential role in the Universe. Such clouds are invoked for the production and destruction of stars, galaxies and gas and also for energy transport in galaxies. The Galaxy, or the Milky Way, is a large spiral galaxy, with a central bar structure, that harbours a few hundred billion stars and large amounts of gas and dust. At the centre of the Galaxy, a 4 mi...