Related papers: Nuclear Star Clusters and Black Holes
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are dense, compact stellar systems only a few parsecs across, located at galaxy centers. Their small sizes make them difficult to resolve spatially. NSCs often coexist with massive black holes, and both trace…
Nuclear Star Clusters are observed at the center of many galaxies. In particular in the center of the Milky Way the Nuclear Star Cluster coexists with a cen- tral supermassive black hole. The origin of these clusters is still unknown; a…
We present a catalogue of photometric and structural properties of 228 nuclear star clusters (NSCs) in nearby late-type disk galaxies. These new measurements are derived from a homogeneous analysis of all suitable WFPC2 images in the $HST$…
We report on the structure of the nuclear star cluster in the innermost 0.16 pc of the Galaxy as measured by the number density profile of late-type giants. Using laser guide star adaptive optics in conjunction with the integral field…
We present new upper limits for black hole masses in extremely late type spiral galaxies. We confirm that this class of galaxies has black holes with masses less than 10^6 Msolar, if any. We also derive new upper limits for nuclear star…
We investigate the structural properties of nuclear star clusters in late-type spiral galaxies. More specifically, we fit analytical models to HST images of 39 nuclear clusters in order to determine their effective radii after correction…
Nuclear star clusters are found at the centers of most galaxies. They are the densest stellar systems in the Universe, and thus have unique and interesting stellar dynamics. We review how common nuclear star clusters are in galaxies of…
We carried out a systematic search for new star clusters in a field of 5$^{\circ} \times5^{\circ}$ centred close to the Galactic Nucleus using the infrared JHK$_s$ 2MASS Survey archive. In addition we searched for embedded clusters in the…
Mergers between stellar-mass black holes will be key sources of gravitational radiation for ground-based detectors. However, the rates of these events are highly uncertain, given that such systems are invisible. One formation scenario…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are located at the photometric and dynamical centers of the majority of galaxies. They are among the densest star clusters in the Universe. The NSC in the Milky Way is the only object of this class that can be…
The origin of the Nuclear Star Cluster in the centre of our Galaxy is still unknown. One possibility is that it formed after the disruption of stellar clusters that spiralled into the Galactic Centre due to dynamical friction. We trace the…
Nuclear star clusters, which fragment into metal-poor stars in situ at the centers of protogalaxies, provide ideal environments for the formation of intermediate-mass black holes with masses $10^3-10^6M_\odot$. We utilize the semianalytic…
We investigate the central regions of 23 spiral galaxies using archival NICMOS imaging and STIS spectroscopy. The sample is taken from our program to determine the masses of central massive black holes (MBH) in 54 nearby spiral galaxies.…
(Abridged) We report on the structure of the nuclear star cluster in the innermost 0.16 pc of the Galaxy as measured by the number density profile of late-type giants. Using laser guide star adaptive optics in conjunction with the integral…
We present a series of $N$-body simulations representing the evolution of a galactic nucleus and its stellar content in a nearly one-to-one representation. The aim of this suite of simulations is to shed light on the interplay between…
We obtained Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 imaging of a sample of ten of the nearest and brightest nuclear clusters residing in late-type spiral galaxies, in seven bands that span the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared.…
It is often assumed that the strong gravitational field of a super-massive black hole disrupts an adjacent molecular cloud preventing classical star formation in the deep potential well of the black hole. Yet, young stars have been observed…
We investigate whether nuclear star clusters and supermassive black holes follow a common set of mass scaling relations with their host galaxy's properties, and hence can be considered to form a single class of central massive object. We…
Stellar black hole (BH) binaries are one of the most promising gravitational wave (GW) sources for GW detection by the ground-based detectors. Nuclear star clusters (NCs) located at the centre of galaxies are known to harbour massive black…
Photometrically distinct nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are common in late-type-disk and spheroidal galaxies. The formation of NSCs is inevitable in the context of normal star formation in which a majority of stars form in clusters. A young,…