Related papers: Does NGC 6397 contain an intermediate-mass black h…
The motions of gas and stars in the nuclei of nearby large galaxies have demonstrated that massive black holes are common and that their masses strongly correlate with the stellar velocity dispersion $\sigma_{\star}$ of the bulge. This…
Using ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, we probe the mass function of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) wherein we also include BHs in the upper mass gap $\sim 60-130~M_\odot$. Employing the projected sensitivity of the…
We present a systematic analysis on the possible presence of dark mass components inside globular clusters (GCs). A spherical Jeans analysis is applied to the stellar kinematics of 9 nearby GCs. On top of the mass distribution provided by…
In this series of two papers we describe a project with STIS on HST to measure the line-of-sight velocities of stars in the central few arcsec of the dense globular cluster M15. This first paper focuses on the observations and reduction of…
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 $4 \times…
The dense central region of NGC 6397 contains three classes of stars whose origins are likely related to stellar interactions: blue stragglers, cataclysmic variables, and probable helium white dwarfs. We summarize results concerning CVs and…
Evidence has been mounting for the existence of black holes with masses from 10^2 to 10^4 M_Solar associated with stellar clusters. Such intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) will encounter other black holes in the dense cores of these…
The existence of black holes (BHs) with masses in the range between stellar remnants and supermassive BHs has only recently become unambiguously established. GW190521, a gravitational wave signal detected by the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration,…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are those between 100 and 10$^5$ solar masses ($M_{\odot}$); their formation process is debated. One possible origin is the growth of less massive black holes (BHs) via mergers with stars and compact…
NGC 3621 is a late-type (Sd) spiral galaxy with an active nucleus, previously detected through mid-infrared [Ne V] line emission. Archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images reveal that the galaxy contains a bright and compact nuclear star…
Multi-epoch observations with ACS on HST provide a unique and comprehensive probe of stellar dynamics within NGC 6397. We are able to confront analytic models of the globular cluster with the observed stellar proper motions. The measured…
Numerical simulations of the dynamical friction suffered by a Galactic center star cluster harboring an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) have been performed. Gerhard has suggested that dynamical friction, which causes a cluster to lose…
In this paper, we address the question: What is the probability of stellar-mass black hole (BH) binaries co-existing in a globular cluster with an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH)? Our results suggest that the detection of one or more BH…
We present a stellar dynamical mass measurement of a newly detected supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the fast-rotating, massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2693 as part of the MASSIVE survey. We combine high signal-to-noise…
We have measured the mass distribution in the central 35" = 1.7 kpc of the E5 galaxy NGC 3377. Stellar rotation velocity and velocity dispersion profiles (seeing sigma_* = 0.20 - 0.56 arcsec) and V-band surface photometry (sigma_* = 0.20 -…
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…
We study the X-ray emission from NGC1277, a galaxy in the core of the Perseus cluster, for which van den Bosch et al. have recently claimed the presence of an UltraMassive Black Hole (UMBH) of mass 1.7 times 10^10 Msun, unless the IMF of…
Despite recent observational efforts, unequivocal signs for the presence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs) have not been found yet. Especially when the presence of IMBHs is constrained through dynamical…
As part of the mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses (WISDOM) project, we present an estimate of the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the nearby fast-rotating early-type galaxy NGC4697. This estimate is based on…
Black holes (BHs) with masses between 100 to 100,000 times the mass of the Sun ($\rm{M}_{\odot}$) are classified as intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), potentially representing a crucial link between stellar-mass and supermassive BHs.…