Related papers: Formation of Massive Black Holes in Galactic Nucle…
(Abridged) We review the results of the first multi-scale, hydrodynamical simulations of mergers between galaxies with central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) to investigate the formation of SMBH binaries in galactic nuclei. We demonstrate…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are dense stellar clusters observed in galactic nuclei, typically hosting a central massive black hole. Here we study the possible formation and evolution of NSCs through the inspiral of multiple star clusters…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are a ubiquitous component of the nuclei of galaxies. It is normally assumed that, following the merger of two massive galaxies, a SMBH binary will form, shrink due to stellar or gas dynamical processes and…
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…
We examine the formation of groups of multiple supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in gas-poor galactic nuclei due to the high merger rate of galaxies at high redshifts. We calculate the relative likelihood of binary, triple, and quadruple…
It has long been thought that nuclear star clusters (NSCs) cannot co-exist with the most massive supermassive black holes (SMBHs), since SMBH mergers - unavoidable for the most massive systems - would scatter away NSC stars. However,…
Dense stellar clusters surround the supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. Interactions within the cluster can alter the stellar orbits, occasionally driving a star into the SMBH's tidal radius where it becomes ruptured, or…
As the sensitivity of gravitational wave (GW) instruments improves and new networks start operating, hundreds of merging stellar-mass black holes (SBHs) and intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are expected to be observed in the next few…
We investigate the interaction of a massive globular cluster (GC) with a super massive black hole (SMBH), located at the centre of its host galaxy, by means of direct N-body simulations. The results show that tidal distortions induced by…
We explore here an scenario for massive black hole formation driven by stellar collisions in galactic nuclei, proposing a new formation regime of global instability in nuclear stellar clusters triggered by runaway stellar collisions. Using…
Current stellar evolution models predict a dearth of black holes (BHs) with masses $\gtrsim 50$ M$_\odot$ and $\lesssim 5$ M$_\odot$, and intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs; $\sim10^2- 10^5$ M$_\odot$) have not yet been detected beyond…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are common in local galactic nuclei, and SMBHs as massive as several billion solar masses already exist at redshift z=6. These earliest SMBHs may grow by the combination of radiation-pressure-limited…
By using direct N-body numerical simulations, we model the dynamical co-evolution of two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the surrounding stars in merging galaxies. In order to investigate how different stellar components evolve during…
More than two hundred supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of masses $\gtrsim 10^9\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ have been discovered at $z \gtrsim 6$. One promising pathway for the formation of SMBHs is through the collapse of supermassive stars (SMSs)…
We present $N\mathrm{-body} $ simulations, including post-Newtonian dynamics, of dense clusters of low-mass stars harbouring central black holes (BHs) with initial masses of 50, 300, and 2000 $\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. The models are evolved…
An increasing number of ambiguous nuclear transients, including some extreme nuclear transients with very shallow light-curve declines and weak AGN activity in their host galaxies, have been reported. Stars form in or are captured by AGN…
We discuss the properties of stellar mass black hole (BH) mergers induced by tidal encounters with a massive BH at galactic centres or potentially in dense star clusters. The tidal disruption of stellar binaries by a massive BH is known to…
Most stellar evolution models predict that black holes (BHs) should not exist above approximately $50-70$ M$_\odot$, the lower limit of the pair-instability mass gap. However, recent LIGO/Virgo detections indicate the existence of BHs with…
The tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole (MBH) is thought to produce a transient luminous event. Such tidal disruption events (TDEs) may play an important role in the detection and characterization of MBHs and probe the…
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are expected by the hierarchical galaxy formation model in $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. There is some evidence in the literature for SMBHBs in AGNs, but there are few observational constraints on the…