Satellite infall and mass deposition on the galactic centre

We model the infall of an ~2 x 10⁵M⊙ satellite galaxy on to the inner 200 parsec of our Galaxy, to test whether the satellite could perturb the gas previously on stable orbits in the central molecular zone, as proposed by Lang et al. This process would have driven a large gas inflow around 10 Myr ago, necessary to explain the past high accretion rate on to the supermassive black hole, and the presence of young stars in the inner parsecs of the Galaxy. Our hydrodynamical simulations show a much smaller inflow of gas, not sufficient to produce the aforementioned effects.