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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

Intermediate mass black holes (10$^3$-10$^5$ M$_\odot$) in the center of dwarf galaxies are believed to be analogous to growing Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the early Universe. Their characterization can provide insight about the early…

Recently, both stellar mass-segregation and binary-fractions were uniformly measured on relatively large samples of Galactic Globular Clusters (GCs). Simulations show that both sizeable binary-star populations and Intermediate-Mass Black…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-06-08 Mario Pasquato , Paolo Miocchi , Bong Won Sohn , Young-Wook Lee

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

In this paper we explore the interplay between intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and their nursing globular clusters (GCs), taking advantage of over 2000 Monte Carlo GC models. We find that the average density of IMBHs sphere of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-05-06 Manuel Arca Sedda , Abbas Askar , Mirek Giersz

Recently, two independent groups found very different results when measuring the central velocity dispersion of the galactic globular cluster NGC 6388 with different methods. While L\"utzgendorf et al. (2011) found a rising profile and a…

We use spectra observed with the integral-field spectrograph MUSE to reveal the central kinematics of the Galactic globular cluster Messier 80 (M80, NGC 6093). Using observations obtained with the recently commissioned narrow-field mode of…

Finding an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) in a globular cluster (GC), or proving its absence, is a crucial ingredient in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. The challenge is to identify a unique signature of an IMBH…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-08-23 Alice Zocchi , Mark Gieles , Vincent Hénault-Brunet

For galaxies hosting supermassive black holes (SMBHs), it has been observed that the mass of the central black hole (M_BH) tightly correlates with the effective or central velocity dispersion (sigma) of the host galaxy. The origin of this…

We analyze HST/STIS spectra (see Paper I) of the central region of the dense globular cluster M15. We infer the velocities of 64 individual stars, two-thirds of which have their velocity measured for the first time. This triples the number…

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) have masses of about 100 to 100,000 solar masses. They remain elusive. Observing IMBHs in present-day globular clusters (GCs) would validate a formation channel for seed black holes in the early…

I-band CCD images of a large area of the nearby globular cluster NGC~6397 have been used to construct a surface density profile and two luminosity and mass functions. The surface density profile extends out to 14\arcm from the cluster…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-22 G. A. Drukier , G. G. Fahlman , H. B. Richer , L. Searle , I. Thompson

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

A number of observations hints for the presence of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) in the core of three globular clusters: M15 and NGC 6752 in the Milky Way, and G1, in M31. However the existence of these IMBHs is far form being…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 M. Colpi , B. Devecchi , M. Mapelli , A. Patruno , A. Possenti

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) occupy the $ 10^2 - 10^5\,M_\odot $ range, but their existence remains poorly constrained. Only a few candidates have been suggested in dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and LIGO-Virgo-Kagra…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-10-10 Cristiano Ugolini

We expand upon the AMUSE-Virgo survey which imaged 100 early-type Virgo cluster galaxies with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and we place an emphasis on potential intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). Virgo early-type galaxies with…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-04-16 Alister W. Graham , Roberto Soria

In this study, we present a detailed study of mass segregation in the globular clister NGC 6397. First, we carry out a photometric analysis of projected ESO-VLT data (between 1 and 10 arcmin from the cluster centre), presenting the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-25 E. Martinazzi , A. Pieres , S. O. Kepler , J. E. S. Costa , C. Bonatto , E. Bica

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

We present N-body models to complement deep imaging of the metal-poor core-collapsed cluster NGC6397 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. All simulations include stellar and binary evolution in-step with the stellar dynamics and…