| Abstract: | We study the dynamical evolution of a stellar disc orbiting a massive black hole. We explore the role of two-body relaxation, mass segregation, stellar evolution and binary-heating in affecting the disc evolution and consider the impact of the nuclear cluster properties and the stellar-disc mass-function. We use analytic arguments and apply them to study the evolution of a the velocity dispersion of stars in a Galatic Centre (GC) – like stellar disc on both short (few million years) and longer (100 Myr) evolutionary time-scales. |