PRE2023-The interstellar medium and stellar population in the Galactic Center (PID2022-136640NB-C21)

The interstellar medium and stellar population in the Galactic Centre The Galactic Centre (GC) is the only galaxy nucleus in which we can observationally resolve its stars and thus probe its physics in detail. The GC therefore plays a central role in the study of the properties of and interactions between the common building blocks of galaxy nuclei: massive black holes, nuclear star clusters, nuclear stellar discs, and the interstellar medium. The GC is also the most extreme environment in the Milky Way and its most prolific star-forming region. It can serve as a unique proxy to understand star-forming conditions in high-redshift star-forming galaxies. The IAA Galactic Centre Group (GCG) is a leader in high angular resolution observations of the GC and the study of its structure and stellar population. With the GALACTICNUCLEUS project, the GCG has delivered the so far most complete catalogue of stars in the inner 100 pc. Currently, we are working on obtaining the proper motions of a few million stars in the GC. The GCG is also active in radio observations of the centre of the Milky Way. We mainly use instruments from the ESO VLT, the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the VLA radio interferometer. This thesis will focus on the properties of the interstellar medium and stars in the GC, in particular in the nuclear star cluster that surrounds the central black hole.