  The massive black hole (MBH) in the Galactic Center and the stars around it
form a unique stellar dynamics laboratory for studying how relaxation processes
affect the distribution of stars and compact remnants and lead to close
interactions between them and the MBH. Recent theoretical studies suggest that
processes beyond "minimal" two-body relaxation may operate and even dominate
relaxation and its consequences in the Galactic Center. I describe loss-cone
refilling by massive perturbers, strong mass segregation and resonant
relaxation; review observational evidence that these processes play a role in
the Galactic Center; and discuss some cosmic implications for the rates of
gravitational wave emission events from compact remnants inspiraling into MBHs,
and the coalescence timescales of binary MBHs.
