Active galactic nuclei ( AGN ) are powered by the accretion of disks of gas onto supermassive black holes ( SMBHs ) .
Stars and stellar remnants orbiting the SMBH in the nuclear star cluster ( NSC ) will interact with the AGN disk .
Orbiters plunging through the disk experience a drag force and , through repeated passage , can have their orbits captured by the disk .
A population of embedded objects in AGN disks may be a significant source of binary black hole mergers , supernovae , tidal disruption events and embedded gamma-ray bursts .
For two representative AGN disk models we use geometric drag and Bondi-Hoyle-Littleton drag to determine the time to capture for stars and stellar remnants .
We assume a range of initial inclination angles and semi-major axes for circular Keplerian prograde orbiters .
Capture time strongly depends on the density and aspect ratio of the chosen disk model , the relative velocity of the stellar object with respect to the disk , and the AGN lifetime .
We expect that for an AGN disk density \rho \gtrsim 10 ^ { -11 } g / cm ^ { 3 } and disk lifetime \geq 1 Myr , there is a significant population of embedded stellar objects , which can fuel mergers detectable in gravitational waves with LIGO-Virgo and LISA .