SMUGGLE-Ring: Evolutionary link between nuclear star cluster and nuclear disk

[2606.05157] SMUGGLE-Ring: Evolutionary link between nuclear star cluster and nuclear disk Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > Astrophysics of Galaxies arXiv:2606.05157 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 3 Jun 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 26 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: SMUGGLE-Ring: Evolutionary link between nuclear star cluster and nuclear disk Authors: SungWon Kwak , Mathias Schultheis , Ivan Minchev , Cristina Chiappini , Woong-Tae Kim , Seungwon Baek , Federico Marinacci , Mark Vogelsberger , Laura V. Sales , Hui Li , Matthias Steinmetz View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We present a high-resolution hydrodynamical simulation of the formation and evolution of nuclear structures in a Milky Way-mass galaxy using the SMUGGLE model. The system naturally develops a bar in isolation of $\approx5$ kpc in length, driving sustained gas inflows toward the center that lead to the formation of a nuclear stellar disk (NSD) and a nuclear star cluster (NSC). By only considering stars born after bar formation, we can cleanly isolate the nuclear structures and recover a clear inside-out growth of the NSD. In line with observations, we find that stellar feedback induces repeated shocks that regulate the size of the nuclear gas disk and drive gas from its outer edge toward the NSC region. Over time, the NSD and NSC share similar mass growth and star formation histories, except during the accretion of a massive star cluster. Our results suggest that both the evolutionary timescale of the bar (and thus of the NSD) and the accretion history of star clusters are essential for obtaining tighter scaling relations for nuclear structures and their host galaxies. Finally, our results favor a lower bulge mass for the Milky Way than that of our model ($B/D\approx 0.045$) to explain the compact size of its nuclear disk. Comments: 10 pages, 8 figures, Published in A&A Letters Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) Report number: AA61268-26 Cite as: arXiv:2606.05157 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2606.05157v3 [astro-ph.GA] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.05157 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: A&A, 712, L25 (2026) Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202661268 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: SungWon Kwak [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 3 Jun 2026 17:56:44 UTC (9,948 KB) [v2] Sun, 2 Aug 2026 15:25:43 UTC (10,440 KB) [v3] Wed, 26 Aug 2026 21:42:07 UTC (10,440 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: astro-ph.GA < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-06 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab)

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