Related papers: Stellar Dynamics and Stellar Phenomena Near A Mass…
Most stars form in dense stellar environments. It is speculated that some dense star clusters may host intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which may have formed from runaway collisions between high-mass stars, or from the mergers of less…
The correlation between the mass of supermassive black holes in galaxy nuclei and the mass of the galaxy spheroids or bulges (or more precisely their central velocity dispersion), suggests a common formation scenario for galaxies and their…
Dense stellar clusters are expected to house the ideal conditions for binary black hole (BBH) formation, both through binary stellar evolution and through dynamical encounters. We use theoretical arguments as well as $N$-body simulations to…
We study the observational constraints on the cosmic evolution of the relationships between the massive black hole (MBH) mass (M_bh) and the stellar mass (M^*_sph; or velocity dispersion \sigma) of the host galaxy/spheroid. Assuming that…
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…
Although supermassive black holes (SMBHs) correlate well with their host galaxies, there is an emerging view that outliers exist. Henize 2-10, NGC 4889, and NGC1277 are examples of SMBHs at least an order of magnitude more massive than…
The environment near super massive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei contain a large number of stars and compact objects. A fraction of these are likely to be members of binaries. Here we discuss the binary population of stellar black…
We investigate a model in which galactic nuclei form via the coalescence of pre-existing stellar systems containing supermassive black holes. Merger simulations are carried out using N-body algorithms that can follow the formation and decay…
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are the products of frequent galaxy mergers. The coalescence of the SMBHBs is a distinct source of gravitational wave (GW) radiation. The detections of the strong GW radiation and their possible…
Here we discuss the evolution of binaries around MBH in nuclear stellar clusters. We focus on their secular evolution due to the perturbation by the MBH, while simplistically accounting for their collisional evolution. Binaries with highly…
We compute the isotropic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by binary supermassive black holes (SBHs) in galactic nuclei. In our model, massive binaries evolve at early times via gravitational-slingshot interaction with nearby…
The spin angular momentum S of a supermassive black hole (SBH) precesses due to torques from orbiting stars, and the stellar orbits precess due to dragging of inertial frames by the spinning hole. We solve the coupled post-Newtonian…
Mass and spin are the only two parameters needed to completely characterize black holes in General Relativity. However, the interaction between black holes and their environment is where complexity lies, as the relevant physical processes…
This article intends to provide a concise overview, from an observational point-of-view, of the current state of our knowledge of the most relevant properties of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (MWNSC). The MWNSC appears to be a…
A supermassive black hole (SMBH) surrounded by a dense, nuclear star cluster resides at the center of many galaxies. In this dense environment, high-velocity collisions frequently occur between stars. About $10 \%$ of the stars within the…
A star on a nearly radial trajectory approaching a massive black hole (MBH) gets tidally disrupted if it comes sufficiently close to the MBH. Here we explore what happens to binary stars whose centers of mass approach the MBH on nearly…
We discuss experiments achievable via monitoring of stellar dynamics near the massive black hole at the Galactic center with a next generation, extremely large telescope (ELT). Given the likely observational capabilities of an ELT and…
A massive black hole at the center of a dense stellar system, such as a globular cluster or a galactic nucleus, is subject to a random walk due gravitational encounters with nearby stars. It behaves as a Brownian particle, since it is much…
Understanding the connection between galaxy properties and their central massive black holes (MBHs) is key to unveiling their co-evolution. We use the ${\tt L{-}Galaxies{-} \it BH}$ semi-analytical model and the ${\tt Millennium}$ suite of…
Understanding the processes that drive galaxy formation and shape the observed properties of galaxies is one of the most interesting and challenging frontier problems of modern astrophysics. We now know that the evolution of galaxies is…