Related papers: Massive black hole assembly in nuclear star cluste…
Very massive stars (VMSs) formed via a sequence of stellar collisions in dense star clusters have been proposed as the progenitors of massive black hole seeds. VMSs could indeed collapse to form intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which…
The dynamical formation of black hole binaries in globular clusters that merge due to gravitational waves occurs more frequently in higher stellar density. Meanwhile, the probability to form intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) also…
In this note we suggest that high-mass black holes; i.e., black holes of several solar masses, can be formed in binaries with low-mass main-sequence companions, provided that the hydrogen envelope of the massive star is removed in common…
We report on the structure of the nuclear star cluster in the innermost 0.16 pc of the Galaxy as measured by the number density profile of late-type giants. Using laser guide star adaptive optics in conjunction with the integral field…
We revisit the hypothesis that dense galactic nuclei are formed from inspiraling globular clusters. Recent advances in understanding of the continuous formation of globular clusters over cosmic time and the concurrent evolution of the…
We study how runaway stellar collisions in high-redshift, metal-poor star clusters form very massive stars (VMSs) that can directly collapse to intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We follow the evolution of a pair of neighbouring…
Halos with masses in excess of the atomic limit are believed to be ideal environments in which to form heavy black hole seeds with masses above 10^3 Msun. In cases where the H_2 fraction is suppressed this is expected to lead to reduced…
Hierarchical mergers are one of the distinctive signatures of binary black hole (BBH) formation through dynamical evolution. Here, we present a fast semi-analytic approach to simulate hierarchical mergers in nuclear star clusters (NSCs),…
A literature compilation of nuclear star cluster (NSC) masses is used to study the correlation between global and nuclear properties. A comparison of observational data to the predictions of semi-analytical galaxy formation models places…
There is a lot of current astrophysical evidence and interest in intermediate mass black holes, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand solar masses. The active galaxy M82 and the globular cluster in M31, for example, are known to…
We discuss a model for the early assembly of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies that trace their hierarchical build-up far up in the dark halo `merger tree'. Motivated by the observations of luminous quasars around…
The formation of the most massive quasars observed at high redshifts requires extreme inflows of gas down to the length scales of the central compact object. Here, we estimate the maximum inflow rate allowed by gravity down to the surface…
This paper explores the theoretical relation between star clusters and black holes within, focusing on the potential role of nuclear star clusters (NSCs), globular clusters (GCs), and ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) as environments that…
Determining the final result of black hole-neutron star mergers, and in particular the amount of matter remaining outside the black hole at late times and its properties, has been one of the main motivations behind the numerical simulation…
During galaxy mergers the gas falls to the center, triggers star formation, and feeds the rapid growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). SMBHs respond to this fueling by supplying energy back to the ambient gas. Numerical studies suggest…
We study the stellar dynamics of the first star clusters after intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are formed via runaway stellar collisions. We use the outputs of cosmological simulations of Sakurai et al. (2017) to follow the star…
In recent years, the formation and evolution of rapidly accreting supermassive stars has received significant attention in the hope of better understanding the origin of high redshift quasars. It is often taken for granted that once formed,…
The centers of galaxies host a supermassive black hole surrounded by a dense stellar cluster. The cluster is expected to develop mass segregation, in which gravitational scatterings among the stars cause heavier objects to sink closer to…
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…
Aims: Investigate properties of a cluster of intermediate-mass black holes surrounding a supermassive black hole. Methods: We simulate clusters of equal-mass intermediate-mass black holes ($m_{\rm{IMBH}} = 10^{3}$ ${\rm{M_\odot}}$)…