Supernovae in the Central Parsec: A Mechanism for Producing Spatially
  Anisotropic Hypervelocity Stars
  Several tens of hyper-velocity stars (HVSs) have been discovered escaping our
Galaxy. These stars share a common origin in the Galactic centre and are
distributed anisotropically in Galactic longitude and latitude. We examine the
possibility that HVSs may be created as the result of supernovae occurring
within binary systems in a disc of stars around Sgr A* over the last 100 Myr.
Monte Carlo simulations show that the rate of binary disruption is ~10^-4
yr^-1, comparable to that of tidal disruption models. The supernova-induced HVS
production rate (\Gamma_HVS) is significantly increased if the binaries are
hardened via migration through a gaseous disc. Moderate hardening gives
\Gamma_HVS ~ 2*10^-7 yr^-1 and an estimated population of ~20 HVSs in the last
100 Myr. Supernova-induced HVS production requires the internal and external
orbital velocity vectors of the secondary binary component to be aligned when
the binary is disrupted. This leaves an imprint of the disc geometry on the
spatial distribution of the HVSs, producing a distinct anisotropy.
