Most galaxies harbor a supermassive black hole in their centre around which orbits a stellar cluster, the galactic nucleus. The unique proximity of the Milky-Way’s central black hole, SgrA*, offers an extraordinary opportunity to study such a crowded environment. Although galactic nuclei are among the densest stellar systems in the universe, the steep potential well generated by the central black hole allows for efficient long-term orbit-averaged interactions between the stars. Ultimately, this drives the relaxation of the stellar orbits through an intricate hierarchy of dynamical processes. In this presentation, I will report on recent developments in kinetic theory, describe efficient numerical methods to simulate these dynamics, and present first quantitative applications of these frameworks to constrain SgrA*’s stellar content. [The talk will be streamed online, please ask the organizers for the link.]

CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris