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Hypervelocity stars are stars with velocities exceeding the escape velocity
of the Galaxy, 16 of which are known today observationally.
One of the most popular models for their creation involves a 3-body
interaction between a binary star and the Supermassive black hole
in the center of the Galaxy, which causes tidal break-up of the binary star.
These kind of interactions are often accompanied with an energy exchange,
where one of the binary members gains energy (and therefore -
velocity) and gets ejected from the system, while the other member losses
energy and becomes bound to the Black Hole.
We will review the problem of a binary star approaching the Black Hole in
an eccentric orbit, estimate roughly the minimum eccentricity
for ejections to occur, and examine typical ejection energies.
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