Stellar Evolution in AGN Disks

Adam S. Jermyn; Douglas N. C. Lin; Matteo Cantiello

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Stellar Evolution in AGN Disks

Matteo Cantiello, Adam S. Jermyn, Douglas N. C. Lin

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Submitted 8 Sep 2020

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim We show that the evolution of AGN stars can have a profound impact on the evolution of AGN metallicities, as well as the production of gravitational waves sources observed by LIGO-Virgo.

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The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

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Compiled by classifier-1.13.0 via TypeSafe API, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 6,923 input tokens.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.04 · states limitation 0.10 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.11 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.94 · compares with prior results 0.06 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v2. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by geometrically-thin accretion disks surrounding a central supermassive black hole. Here we explore the evolution of stars embedded in these extreme astrophysical environments (AGN stars). Because AGN disks are much hotter and denser than the interstellar medium, AGN stars are subject to very different boundary conditions than normal stars. They are also strongly affected by both mass accretion, which can runaway given the vast mass of the disk, and mass loss due to super-Eddington winds. Moreover, chemical mixing plays a critical role in the evolution of these stars by allowing fresh hydrogen accreted from the disk to mix into their cores. We find that, depending on the local AGN density and sound speed and the duration of the AGN phase, AGN stars can rapidly become very massive (M > 100 M$_\odot$). These stars undergo core-collapse, leave behind compact remnants and contribute to polluting the disk with heavy elements. We show that the evolution of AGN stars can have a profound impact on the evolution of AGN metallicities, as well as the production of gravitational waves sources observed by LIGO-Virgo. We point to our galactic center as a region well-suited to test some of our predictions of this exotic stellar evolutionary channel.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by geometrically-thin accretion disks surrounding a central supermassive black hole.	background 1.00	0.05	0.02	asserted 1.00
s1	Here we explore the evolution of stars embedded in these extreme astrophysical environments (AGN stars).	contribution 0.99	0.80	0.03	asserted 0.66
s2	Because AGN disks are much hotter and denser than the interstellar medium, AGN stars are subject to very different boundary conditions than normal stars.	background 1.00	0.07	0.02	asserted 1.00
s3	They are also strongly affected by both mass accretion, which can runaway given the vast mass of the disk, and mass loss due to super-Eddington winds.	background 0.98	0.11	0.04	asserted 0.98
s4	Moreover, chemical mixing plays a critical role in the evolution of these stars by allowing fresh hydrogen accreted from the disk to mix into their cores.	background 0.68	0.25	0.05	asserted 1.00
s5	We find that, depending on the local AGN density and sound speed and the duration of the AGN phase, AGN stars can rapidly become very massive (M > 100 M$_\odot$).	result 1.00	0.96	0.29	asserted 0.91
s6	These stars undergo core-collapse, leave behind compact remnants and contribute to polluting the disk with heavy elements.	result 0.98	0.67	0.13	asserted 1.00
s7	We show that the evolution of AGN stars can have a profound impact on the evolution of AGN metallicities, as well as the production of gravitational waves sources observed by LIGO-Virgo.	interpretation 0.77	0.90	0.66	asserted 1.00
s8	We point to our galactic center as a region well-suited to test some of our predictions of this exotic stellar evolutionary channel.	future work 0.97	0.42	0.05	hedged possibility 0.70

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 0.51 · evidence from simulation or computation 0.90.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read

arXiv listing abstract v2

not examined

full text
figures and tables
references and citing sentences
relations to other papers

levels run

P abstract

not run

S sections
T body sentences
C citations
R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by geometrically-thin accretion disks surrounding a central supermassive black hole. Here we explore the evolution of stars embedded in these extreme astrophysical environments (AGN stars). Because AGN disks are much hotter and denser than the interstellar medium, AGN stars are subject to very different boundary conditions than normal stars. They are also strongly affected by both mass accretion, which can runaway given the vast mass of the disk, and mass loss due to super-Eddington winds. Moreover, chemical mixing plays a critical role in the evolution of these stars by allowing fresh hydrogen accreted from the disk to mix into their cores. We find that, depending on the local AGN density and sound speed and the duration of the AGN phase, AGN stars can rapidly become very massive (M > 100 M$_\odot$). These stars undergo core-collapse, leave behind compact remnants and contribute to polluting the disk with heavy elements. We show that the evolution of AGN stars can have a profound impact on the evolution of AGN metallicities, as well as the production of gravitational waves sources observed by LIGO-Virgo. We point to our galactic center as a region well-suited to test some of our predictions of this exotic stellar evolutionary channel.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

AGN as Potential Factories for Eccentric Black Hole Mergers
astro-ph.HE 2020-10 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

Binary-single scattering in the near-coplanar geometry of AGN disks yields roughly a hundred times more eccentric black hole mergers than isotropic cluster scattering, conditional on mutual inclinations below about on...
High metal content of highly accreting quasars
astro-ph.HE 2020-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

The broad-line gas in 13 extreme Population A quasars appears to be 10 to 50 times solar metallicity, with hints of extra aluminum.
Population Synthesis of Gravitational Wave Sources
astro-ph.HE 2025-02 accept novelty 1.0 of 10

A review of population synthesis: the codes, the environments, and the predicted rates and features of gravitational wave sources, with an emphasis on breaking degeneracies.
The School on Gravity: from motion to commotion
gr-qc 2026-10 unverdicted

This review compiles pedagogical lectures on the formation, detection, and dynamics of compact object binaries, the effective-field-theory approach to the two-body problem, and the quantum properties of black holes.

How later papers used it

89 later papers cite it

Evidence: some. 75 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 3 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

Pith read 15 of the 180 citing sentences, choosing only those whose citation markers point at this paper alone, and wrote the paraphrases from them. The summary, the counts, the evidence level, the links and the quotes come from code; the summary counts the papers listed below. A later paper is listed under a label when Pith's citation classifier gives one of its sentences that label at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), Pith's reading finds that the citing paper itself did it, and a second check confirms the paraphrase against the sentence. This section lists uses only. It does not list criticism or disagreement, so their absence here says nothing about how the paper has been received. Papers that share an author with this one are listed apart, under "By the same authors". A quote is the citing authors' own sentence, shown when their paper's licence is CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC0. JSON

2 papers by the same authors are listed below: 2 used its method or tool.

Uses its method or tool 2 of 3 papers with this label · 2 by the same authors

By the same authors

Used the same modified code used and provided by this paper for all of its simulations.

The impermanent fate of massive stars in AGN disks (2023) (same authors) · 1.00 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting
We compute the mass accretion rate using the following expression: [equation] where $ρ$ is the disk density and $f∼4$ is a luminosity-dependent factor that accounts for the decrease of the accretion rate onto the star as it approaches the Eddington luminosity (see [ref] for details).

Mapping the Outcomes of Stellar Evolution in the Disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (2024) (same authors) · Comparison Between Different Timescales · 0.97

How the literature uses it

13 arXiv papers cite this in 29 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 22 sentences without a confident label

Uses its method or tool 1 paper

Similar to other works [ref] , we assume a super-Eddington outflow at the escape velocity $v_esc = (2GM_*/R_*)^1/2$, and following [ref] we compute an associated mass-loss rate [equation] where the hyperbolic tangent acts to smooth the onset of mass loss and help our calculations converge.

Accretion onto Stars in the Disks of Active Galactic Nuclei · Numerical Methods · 0.87

Cites it as support 1 paper

As shown by [ref] , many AGN stars evolve with $L_*∼$, such that super-Eddington continuum-driven winds are likely to dominate their mass loss.

Accretion onto Stars in the Disks of Active Galactic Nuclei · Numerical Methods · 0.97

Cites it as background 4 papers

Building on this seminal work, two models are most commonly used in the field, namely those by [ref] and [ref] (but see also [ref] ).

pAGN: the one-stop solution for AGN disc modeling · Introduction · 0.82
Black holes that eventually merge in AGN-disks can be brought into the disk through gas-capture from the surrounding nuclear star cluster [ref] or can be produced through in-situ star formation [ref] .

AGN as Potential Factories for Eccentric Black Hole Mergers · Introduction · 0.86
Previous works have studied stellar evolution subject to AGN-like boundary conditions, ranging from stars subject to irradiation from an AGN [ref] to those embedded within AGN disks and subject to Bondi-like spherically symmetric accretion and super-Eddington mass loss [ref] .

Accretion onto Stars in the Disks of Active Galactic Nuclei · Introduction · 0.98

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