2024ApJ...966..222F

The presence of young stars, aged around several million years and situated within the range of ∼0.04-1 pc from our Galactic center raises a question about their origins and dynamical evolutions. Their kinematics provide an opportunity to explore their formation or possible subsequent dynamical evolution. If Sagittarius A* was active in the past as suggested by several observations, the accretion disk may have a significant impact on the dynamics of stars in the Galactic center. The drag force exerted on stars during star-disk interaction could lead some of them to sink into the accretion disk, and these embedded stars will rapidly migrate inward and eventually be disrupted within ∼10⁵ yr. This could roughly explain the absence of stars within 2.5 × 10⁴R_g (∼1000 au). Additionally, Kozai-Lidov oscillations, induced by the gravitational perturbation of the disk, could contribute to the bimodal distribution of S-star inclinations and drive a majority of stars into high-eccentricity orbits.