Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 347 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Work in the rest frame of the hole and neglect stellar velocities compared with . In addition to , assume the galactic encounter speed is nonrelativistic, . Treat a star as a test particle with specific angular momentum . At its pericentre , its radial velocity vanishes. Conservation of energy and conservation of angular momentum giveThe second term is gravitational focusing. For the rough Newtonian estimate in the question, assume capture when the pericentre reaches the Schwarzschild radius, . It follows thatThe approximation keeps the focusing term because .
Let be the stellar mass density. Multiplying the geometric collision cross-section by the incoming mass flux gives the collisionless black-hole capture rateFor a supersonic gas with negligible sound speed, Bondi--Hoyle--Lyttleton accretion has capture radius and rateConsequentlyFor comparable densities and , the suppression is approximately . Gas can collide, dissipate orbital energy, and be captured from a region of size ; collisionless particles generally leave on an unbound orbit unless their angular momentum is small enough for direct capture. Chandrasekhar dynamical friction can slow the hole by transferring energy to a stellar wake, but does not mean that the stars producing that wake are swallowed.
There is an important accuracy limitation in the requested numerical coefficient. Newtonian orbital mechanics evaluated at a relativistic event horizon cannot give the exact capture boundary. In Schwarzschild spacetime, a slowly incoming massive particle has dimensionless energy and timelike geodesic effective potentialThe double turning point satisfying and occurs at and . The exact low-speed boundary is therefore , twice the rough value; it makes the rate ratio . The key suppression scaling is unchanged.
Direct capture of ordinary stars or dark matter is therefore an inefficient route to rapid growth of a supermassive black hole under these conditions. Tidal disruption events can capture stellar debris without swallowing an intact point-like star, and special dense environments can modify the supply. These qualifications do not make collisionless capture equivalent to dissipative gas accretion.