English
Related papers

Related papers: Constraining Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Glob…

200 papers

Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) are among the most elusive objects in contemporary astrophysics. Both theoretical and observational evidence of their existence is subject of debate. Conversely, both theory and observations confirm the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-11 Alberto Sesana , Nicola Sartore , Bernadetta Devecchi , Andrea Possenti

Despite recent observational efforts, unequivocal signs for the presence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs) have not been found yet. Especially when the presence of IMBHs is constrained through dynamical…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-03-06 Ruggero de Vita , Michele Trenti , Morgan MacLeod

We have developed a new method for post-Newtonian, high-precision integration of stellar systems containing a super-massive black hole (SMBH), splitting the forces on a particle between a dominant central force and perturbations. We used…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-04-11 Ulf Löckmann , Holger Baumgardt

Millisecond pulsars can serve as effective probes to investigate the presence of Intermediate-mass Black Holes (IMBHs) within Galactic globular clusters (GCs). Based on the standard structure models for GCs, we conduct simulations to…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-11-21 Yi Xie , Dejiang Yin , Lichun Wang , Yujie Lian , Liyun Zhang , Zhichen Pan

The dynamics of stars in the inner regions of nearby globular clusters (GCs) such as G1 indicate the presence of central concentrated dark masses, and one would like to know whether these are indeed intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). As…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-02-11 Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz , Stephan Rosswog

We have followed the evolution of multi-mass star clusters containing massive central black holes through collisional N-body simulations done on GRAPE6. Each cluster is composed of between 16,384 to 131,072 stars together with a black hole…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Holger Baumgardt , Junichiro Makino , Toshikazu Ebisuzaki

Globular clusters (GCs) are thought to harbor the long-sought population of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We present a systematic search for a putative IMBH in 81 Milky Way GCs, based on archival Chandra X-ray observations. We find…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-08-31 Zhao Su , Zhiyuan Li , Meicun Hou , Mengfei Zhang , Zhongqun Cheng

We recently introduced a new method for simulating collisional gravitational N-body systems with approximately linear time scaling with $N$, based on the Multi-Particle Collision (MPC) scheme, previously applied in Plasma Physics. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-04-26 Pierfrancesco Di Cintio , Mario Pasquato , Luca Barbieri , Alessandro A. Trani , Ugo N. Di Carlo

Observations suggest that star clusters often form in binaries or larger bound groups. Therefore, mergers between two clusters are likely to occur. If these clusters both harbor an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; 10^{2-4} Msun) in their…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Pau Amaro-Seoane , Marc Freitag

The detection of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) in dwarf galaxies is crucial to closing the gap in the wide mass distribution of black holes ($\sim 3 \, \rm M_{\odot}$ to $\sim 5 \times 10^{10} \, \rm M_{\odot}$). IMBHs originally…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-02-15 Emma Jane Weller , Fabio Pacucci , Lars Hernquist , Sownak Bose

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) could form via runaway merging of massive stars in a young massive star cluster (YMC). We combine a suite of numerical simulations of YMC formation with a semi-analytic model for dynamical friction and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-05-27 Yanlong Shi , Michael Y. Grudić , Philip F. Hopkins

In this paper, we address the question: What is the probability of stellar-mass black hole (BH) binaries co-existing in a globular cluster with an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH)? Our results suggest that the detection of one or more BH…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-22 Nathan W. C. Leigh , Nora Luetzgendorf , Aaron M. Geller , Thomas J. Maccarone , Craig O. Heinke , Alberto Sesana

Recently, an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidate was announced in the Galactic globular cluster Omega Centauri. IMBHs at the lower end of the traditional mass range have also been detected through gravitational-wave transients,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-02 Miguel A. S. Martinez , Elena González Prieto , Frederic A. Rasio

We present an astrometric study of the proper motions (PMs) in the core of the globular cluster NGC 6441. The core of this cluster has a high density and observations with current instrumentation are very challenging. We combine…

The recent detection of fast-moving stars in the core of Omega Centauri ($\omega$ Cen), the most massive globular cluster (GC) in the Milky Way, has provided strong evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). As…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-22 Elena González Prieto , Carl L. Rodriguez , Tomás Cabrera

Young dense massive star clusters are a promising environment for the formation of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) through collisions. We present a set of 80 simulations carried out with Nbody6++GPU of 10 initial conditions for…

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) may provide the missing link to understanding the growth of supermassive black holes in the early Universe. Some formation scenarios predict that IMBHs could have formed by runaway collisions in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-17 Nora Lützgendorf , Holger Baumgardt , J. M. Diederik Kruijssen

Context. The problem of the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) at the centre of globular clusters is a hot and controversial topic in current astrophysical research with important implications in stellar and galaxy…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2010-06-14 P. Miocchi

Globular clusters may host intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) at their centres. Here we propose a new method for their identification using millisecond pulsars (MSPs) as probes. We show that measuring the first (jerk) and second (jounce)…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-05-22 Federico Abbate , Mario Spera , Monica Colpi

Empirical evidence for both stellar mass black holes M_bh<10^2 M_sun) and supermassive black holes (SMBHs, M_bh>10^5 M_sun) is well established. Moreover, every galaxy with a bulge appears to host a SMBH, whose mass is correlated with the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2014-11-20 Margarita Safonova , Prajval Shastri