Dynamics of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Star Clusters
Abstract
We have followed the evolution of multi-mass star clusters containing massive central black holes by N-body simulations on the GRAPE6 computers of Tokyo University. We find a strong cluster expansion and significant structural changes of the clusters. Star clusters with IMBHs have power-law density profiles with slopes inside the influence sphere of the central black hole. This leads to a constant density profile of bright stars in projection, which rules out the presence of intermediate mass black holes in core collapse clusters. If the star clusters are surrounded by a tidal field, a central IMBH speeds up the destruction of the cluster until a remnant of a few hundred stars remains, which stays bound to the IMBH for a long time. We also discuss the efficiency of different detection mechanisms for finding IMBHs in star clusters.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0403140,
title = {Dynamics of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Star Clusters},
author = {Holger Baumgardt and Simon Portegies Zwart and Steve McMillan and Jun Makino and Toshikazu Ebisuzaki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0403140},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the "The Formation and Evolution of Massive Young Clusters" conference, Cancun, Mexico, 17 - 21 November, 2003