Related papers: Trojan Stars in the Galactic Center
We study stellar core growth in simulations of merging massive ($M_\star>10^{11}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$) elliptical galaxies by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) displaced by gravitational wave induced recoil velocity. With controlled, dense…
Growing evidence indicate supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in a mass range of $M_{\rm BH}$$\sim 106-10^{10}M_{\odot}$ lurking in central stellar bulges of galaxies.Extensive observations reveal fairly tight power laws of $M_{\rm BH}$ versus…
In Paper I, we followed the evolution of binary stars as they orbited near the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic center, noting the cases in which the two stars would come close enough together to collide. In this paper we…
We have developed a new numerical code to simulate the joint evolution of a massive black hole (MBH) and a surrounding stellar cluster at the center of a galaxy. The physics treated in the simulations include: 2-body relaxation, stellar…
We propose a dynamical mechanism for capturing stars around a massive black hole (MBH), which is based on the accumulation there of a very dense cluster of compact stellar remnants. This study is motivated by the presence of ~10 young…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) both inhabit galactic nuclei, coexisting in a range of bulge masses, but excluding each other in the largest or smallest galaxies. We propose that the transformation of NSCs…
The spin of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) growing through repeated black hole mergers in stellar clusters statistically asymptotes to zero. Putative observations of IMBHs with dimensionless spin parameter $\chi\gtrsim 0.6$ would…
Gravitational waves emitted by merging black holes between $\sim 10^4-10^7~M_\odot$ will be detectable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) with signal-to-noise ratios of several hundred out to redshift 20. Supermassive black…
During galaxy mergers the gas falls to the center, triggers star formation, and feeds the rapid growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). SMBHs respond to this fueling by supplying energy back to the ambient gas. Numerical studies suggest…
Surface photometry is a necessary tool to establish the dynamical state of stars clusters. We produce realistic HST-like images from N-body models of star clusters with and without central intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in order to…
Stellar-mass and supermassive black holes abound in the Universe, whereas intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of ~10^2-10^5 solar masses in between are largely missing observationally, with few cases found only. Here we report the…
We consider a black hole (BH) density cusp in a nuclear star cluster (NSC) hosting a supermassive back hole (SMBH) at its center. Assuming the stars and BHs inside the SMBH sphere of influence are mass-segregated, we calculate the number of…
Next-generation ground-based gravitational wave observatories will observe mergers of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) out to high redshift. Such IMBHs can form through runaway tidal encounters in the cores of dense stellar clusters.…
The centers of galaxies host a supermassive black hole surrounded by a dense stellar cluster. The cluster is expected to develop mass segregation, in which gravitational scatterings among the stars cause heavier objects to sink closer to…
The evolution of main sequence binaries that reside in the Galactic Centre can be heavily influenced by the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Due to these perturbative effects, the stellar binaries in dense environments are likely to…
We model here the merger histories of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) population in the late stages of a cosmological simulation of a $\sim 2 \times 10^{13} M_\odot$ galaxy group. The gravitational dynamics around the several tens of…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) occupy the $ 10^2 - 10^5\,M_\odot $ range, but their existence remains poorly constrained. Only a few candidates have been suggested in dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and LIGO-Virgo-Kagra…
Aims: Investigate properties of a cluster of intermediate-mass black holes surrounding a supermassive black hole. Methods: We simulate clusters of equal-mass intermediate-mass black holes ($m_{\rm{IMBH}} = 10^{3}$ ${\rm{M_\odot}}$)…
The presence of young stars in the immediate vicinity and strong tidal field of SgrA* remains unexplained. One currently popular idea for their origin posits that the stars were bused in by an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole (IMBH) which has…
There has been suggestive evidence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs; 10^{3-5} M_sun) existing in some globular clusters (GCs) and dwarf galaxies, but IMBHs as a population remain elusive. As a main-sequence star passes too close by…