Related papers: Constraining the Galactic Center Dark Cluster with…
The study of how stars distribute themselves around a massive black hole (MBH) in the center of a galaxy is an important prerequisite for the understanding of many galactic-center processes. These include the observed overabundance of point…
The existence of two distinct and apparently unrelated populations of dusty stellar objects in the Nuclear Stellar Cluster (NSC) of the Milky Way, namely IRS 13 and the S-cluster, are potentially prone to a general process describing the…
The high stellar density in the central parsecs around the Galactic Centre makes it a seemingly favourable environment for finding relativistic binary pulsars. These include pulsars orbiting other neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes or…
If the stellar population of the bulge contains black holes formed in the final core collapse of ordinary stars with M \ga 30 M_{\odot}, then about 25,000 stellar mass black holes should have migrated by dynamical friction into the central…
Orbital eccentricity is one of the most robust discriminators for distinguishing between dynamical and isolated formation scenarios of binary black hole mergers using gravitational-wave observatories such as LIGO and Virgo. Using…
The Galactic Center region is expected to host the largest density of Dark Matter (DM) particles within the Milky Way. Then a relatively large gamma-ray signal would be expected from the possible DM particles annihilation (or decay). We are…
The history of star formation in the strong gravitational potential of the Galactic center has been of much interest, recently. We propose that the sub-parsec-scale disk of massive stars orbiting the massive black hole at the Galactic…
The Galactic center (GC) provides a unique laboratory for a detailed examination of the interplay between massive star formation and the nuclear environment of our Galaxy. Here, we present an 100 ks Chandra ACIS observation of the Arches…
The Milky Way nuclear star cluster (MWNSC) is a crucial laboratory for studying the galactic nuclei of other galaxies, but its properties have not been determined unambiguously until now. Aims. We aim to study the size and spatial structure…
The Dusty S-cluster Object (DSO/G2) orbiting the supermassive black hole (Sgr A*) in the Galactic centre has been monitored in both near-infrared continuum and line emission. There has been a dispute about the character and the compactness…
We present the properties of the globular clusters (GCs) and nuclear star clusters (NSCs) of low-mass ($10^{5.5}<M_\star<10^{8.5}$ $M_\odot$) early-type satellites of Milky Way-like and small group hosts in the Local Volume (LV) using deep,…
We summarize our comprehensive gas surveys of some of the most luminous, deeply embedded (optically obscured) star formation regions in the Milky Way, which are the local cases of massive star clusters and/or associations in the making. Our…
Cosmic shear, galaxy clustering, and the abundance of massive halos each probe the large-scale structure of the Universe in complementary ways. We present cosmological constraints from the joint analysis of the three probes, building on the…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are found in at least 70% of all galaxies, but their formation path is still unclear. In the most common scenarios, NSCs form in-situ from the galaxy's central gas reservoir, through merging of globular clusters…
Dense star clusters are spectacular self-gravitating stellar systems in our Galaxy and across the Universe - in many respects. They populate disks and spheroids of galaxies as well as almost every galactic center. In massive elliptical…
The EGRET telescope has identified a gamma-ray source at the Galactic center. We point out here that the spectral features of this source are compatible with the gamma-ray flux induced by pair annihilations of dark matter weakly interacting…
Galactic nuclei often harbor a disproportionately large amount of star formation activity with respect to their surrounding disks. Not coincidentally, the density of molecular material in galactic nuclei is often also much greater than that…
As the closest example of a galactic nucleus, the Galactic center (GC) presents an exquisite laboratory for learning about supermassive black holes (SMBH) and their environment. We describe several exciting new research directions that,…
Studying the orbital motion of stars around Sagittarius A* in the Galactic Center provides a unique opportunity to probe the gravitational potential near the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Galaxy. Interferometric data obtained…
In the past few years, cosmic-rays beyond the GZK cut-off ($E > 5 \times 10^{19}$ eV) have been detected by leading collaborations such as Pierre Auger Observatory. Such observations raise many questions as to how such energies can be…