Stellar processes near AGN

Abstract

Precise mechanisms by which Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) receive their gaseous fuel is still a mystery. Here I draw attention to the extra ordinary star formation event that took place in the central ~ 0.5 parsec of our Galaxy. The most reliable explanation of the event seems to be that two somewhat massive nearly co-eval gaseous disks failed to accrete on Sgr A*, the super-massive black hole (SMBH) in our Galaxy, and instead cooled down and gravitationally collapsed, forming the stars observed now. This emphasises that star formation must be an important part of AGN feeding puzzle. I also discuss a model in which stellar winds create the observed obscuration of AGN. These winds are cold, clumpy and dusty, as required by the observations, but they are Compton-thin unless wind outflow rate is highly super-Eddington. This argument is in fact a general one, independent of the wind driving mechanism. I thus suggest that winds may be important for optically thin absorbers, and that a better model for optically thick AGN obscuration is a warped accretion/star forming disk.