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We present direct N-body simulations, carried out with Nbody6++GPU, of young and compact low metallicity star clusters with $1.1\times 10^5$ stars, a velocity dispersion of $\sim$ 10 $\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$, a half mass radius $R_h=0.6$ pc,…

Recent studies suggest that numerous intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) may wander undetected across the Universe, emitting little radiation. These IMBHs largely preserve their birth masses, offering critical insights into the formation…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-04-21 Zihao Wu , Luis C. Ho

During the last decades, much effort has been devoted to explain the discrepancy between the amount of intracluster medium (ICM) estimated from stellar evolution theories and that emerging from observations in globular clusters (GCs). One…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-07-27 C. Pepe , L. J. Pellizza

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

Globular clusters are an excellent laboratory for stellar population and dynamical research. Recent studies have shown that these stellar systems are not as simple as previously assumed. With multiple stellar populations as well as outer…

The gravitational wave event GW190521 involves the merger of two black holes of $\sim 85\text{M}_\odot$ and $\sim 66\text{M}_\odot$ forming an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) of mass $\sim 142\text{M}_\odot$. Both progenitors are…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-12-14 Oliver Anagnostou , Michele Trenti , Andrew Melatos

In this study, we investigate the dynamics of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole (IMBH) binaries within Nuclear Star Clusters (NSCs) that contain a population of stellar-mass black holes (BHs). We examine how these stellar and BH populations…

The search for intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in the centre of globular clusters is often based on the observation of a central cusp in the surface brightness profile and a rise towards the centre in the velocity dispersion profiles.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-06-27 Alice Zocchi , Mark Gieles , Vincent Hénault-Brunet

Spectroscopic and photometric observations show that many globular clusters host multiple stellar populations, challenging the common paradigm that globular clusters are "simple stellar populations" composed of stars of uniform age and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-18 Enrico Vesperini , Stephen L. W. McMillan , Annibale D'Ercole , Francesca D'Antona

Here we investigate the possibility that some globular clusters (GCs) harbor intermediate mass black holes (BH) in their centers and are also embedded in a low-mass dark matter (DM) halo. Up to date, there is no evidence on whether or not…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-08-19 Elaine C. F. S. Fortes , Oswaldo D. Miranda , Floyd W. Stecker , Carlos A. Wuensche

We study the short- and long-term effects of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) on the orbits of stars bound to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the Milky Way. A regularized N-body code including post-Newtonian terms…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2011-02-11 Alessia Gualandris , David Merritt

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a population of dense stellar systems at high redshift, including the "Cosmic Gems" arc ($z \sim 10.2$) and the "Firefly Sparkle" ($z \sim 8.3$). With masses in the range of $10^5$…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-29 Viola Bocchi , Matías Liempi , Dominik R. G. Schleicher

We compare the results of a large grid of N-body simulations with the surface brightness and velocity dispersion profiles of the globular clusters $\omega$ Cen and NGC 6624. Our models include clusters with varying stellar-mass black hole…

The globular cluster (GC) 47 Tuc has recently been proposed to host an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) or a population of stellar-mass black holes (BHs). To shed light on its dark content, we present an application of self-consistent…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-01-08 Vincent Hénault-Brunet , Mark Gieles , Jay Strader , Miklos Peuten , Eduardo Balbinot , Kaela E. K. Douglas

Dense stellar environments like nuclear star clusters (NSCs) can dynamically assemble gravitational wave (GW) sources. We consider a population of single stellar mass black holes (BHs) in the inner $0.1$~pc of a NSC surrounding a $4 \times…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-02-10 Amanda Newton , Sanaea C. Rose , Fulya Kıroğlu , Bao-Minh Hoang , Frederic A. Rasio

Between the groundbreaking detections of stellar-mass black holes by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA and JWST's revelation of a surprisingly abundant population of supermassive black holes, one crucial missing link remains: the elusive intermediate-mass…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-21 Colin J. Burke , Priyamvada Natarajan

The most massive galaxies in the Universe also host the largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs), with masses of $10^9 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and above. During their hierarchical assembly, these galaxies have experienced only a few major…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-04-15 Lazaros Souvaitzis , Antti Rantala , Thorsten Naab

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-30 Eva Noyola , Holger Baumgardt

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