[FPU2019] The stellar population and massive star formation at the Galactic Centre

The Milky Way plays a fundamental role for astrophysics because it provides us with the observational base for the vast majority of astrophysical phenomena at the highest possible resolution and at the greatest sensitivity. At only 8 kpc from Earth, the Galactic Centre (GC) contains the nearest galactic nucleus . It is the only one in which we can examine the properties and dynamics of stars on milli-parsec scales and study their interaction with the central supermassive black hole (Sagittarius A*). On scales of tens to hundreds of parsecs, the GC is the most extreme environment in the Milky Way. Therefore, the GC is a template for galactic nuclei and extreme astrophysical environments. It is a prime target for 10m-class telescopes and the future Extremely Large Telescopes (e.g. the ESO ELT).

It is one of the main objectives of the Galactic Centre group at the IAA-CSIC  to understand the properties and formation history of the stellar structures at the GC, which can teach us about the history of the Milky Way, the accretion history of the central black hole, and about the astrophysics of galactic nuclei. Furthermore, a central astrophysical question is whether star formation at the GC produces more massive stars than in the rest of the Milky Way.

The IAA Galactic Center Group has just created an unprecedented catalogue of the stars at the GC (GALACTICNUCLEUS) and is in a worldwide leading position on large scale studies of the GC.

This thesis will  go beyond the current state-of-the-art via new observational studies: (1) Exploitation of the GALACTICNUCLEUS catalogue, probably augmented with new observations and proper motion measurements, to study the  formation history of the GC. (2) Observations of the nuclear star cluster and nuclear stellar disk with the future ERIS/VLT instrument (will be commissioned in 2020). (3) Detailed studies of newly discovered young star clusters at the GC.  (4) Potentially, mid-infrared observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), to be launched in 2021.