Related papers: Hypercompact stellar clusters: morphological rendi…
We investigate the collapse of differentially rotating supermassive stars (SMSs) by means of 3+1 hydrodynamic simulations in general relativity. We particularly focus on the onset of collapse to understand the final outcome of collapsing…
There is compelling evidence that black holes (BHs) in cluster centers vigorously interact with their surroundings, indicating that any realistic model of cluster formation needs to account for these processes. Here we use high-resolution…
We study the compact binary population in star clusters, focusing on binaries containing black holes, using a self-consistent Monte Carlo treatment of dynamics and full stellar evolution. We find that the black holes experience strong mass…
Stellar mass black holes are formed in the field, and are observed in binaries. Population synthesis estimates for the formation of BH-PSR binaries suggest these may be observed, but with very large formal uncertainties in the formation…
The coalescence history of massive black holes has been derived from cosmological simulations, in which the evolution of those objects and that of the host galaxies are followed in a consistent way. The present study indicates that…
We examine the projected correlation of galaxies with mass from small scales (<few hundred kpc) where individual dark matter halos dominate, out to 15 Mpc where correlated large-scale structure dominates. We investigate these profiles as a…
We have studied the globular cluster (GC) systems of 7 giant, edge-on spiral galaxies using Hubble Space Telescope imaging in V and I. The galaxy sample covers the Hubble types Sa to Sc, allowing us to study the variation of the properties…
Giant clumps are a characteristic feature of observed high-redshift disk galaxies. We propose that these kpc-sized clumps have a complex substructure and are the result of many smaller clumps self-organizing themselves into clump clusters…
In the CDM scenario, dark matter halos are assembled hierarchically from smaller subunits. A long-standing problem with this picture is that the number of sub-halos predicted by CDM simulations is orders of magnitudes higher than the known…
We estimate the rate of gravitational microlensing events of cluster stars due to black holes (BHs) in the globular cluster NGC 5139 ($\omega Cen$). Theory and observations both indicate that $\omega Cen$ may contain thousands of BHs, but…
We review theoretical findings, astrophysical modeling, and current gravitational-wave evidence of hierarchical stellar-mass black-hole mergers. While most of the compact binary mergers detected by LIGO and Virgo are expected to consist of…
Centers of galaxies host both a supermassive black hole and a dense stellar cluster. Such an environment should lead to stellar collisions, possibly at very high velocities so that the total energy involved is of the same order as…
Supermassive black holes (BHs) and their host galaxies are interlinked by virtue of feedbacks and are thought to be co-eval across the Hubble time. This relation is highlighted by an approximate proportionality between the BH mass…
We propose an observational test for gravitationally recoiling supermassive black holes (BHs) in active galactic nuclei, based on a correlation between the velocities of BHs relative to their host galaxies, |\Delta v|, and their obscuring…
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…
In two recent papers, we developed a powerful technique to link the distribution of galaxies to that of dark matter haloes by considering halo occupation numbers as function of galaxy luminosity and type. In this paper we use these…
We present results from dynamical Monte Carlo simulations of dense star clusters near the Galactic center. These clusters sink toward the center of the Galaxy by dynamical friction. During their inspiral, they may undergo core collapse and…
Central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are a ubiquitous feature of locally-observed galaxies, and ample evidence suggests that the growth of SMBHs and their host galaxies is closely linked. However, in the event of a merger,…
In this paper, we study the formation and dynamical evolution of black hole-black hole (BH-BH) binaries in young star clusters (YSCs), by means of N-body simulations. The simulations include metallicity-dependent recipes for stellar…
Galaxy mergers lead to the formation of massive black hole binaries which can accelerate background stars close to the speed of light. We estimate the comoving density of ejected stars with a peculiar velocity in excess of $0.1c$ or $0.5c$…