Related papers: Triaxial Black-Hole Nuclei
We construct models of triaxial galactic nuclei containing central black holes using the method of orbital superposition, then verify their stability by advancing N-body realizations of the models forward in time. We assume a power-law form…
The consequences of nuclear black holes for the structure and dynamics of stellar spheroids are reviewed. Slow growth of a black hole in a pre-existing core produces a steep power-law density profile similar to the cusps seen in faint…
Orbital motion in triaxial nuclei with central point masses, representing supermassive black holes, is investigated. The stellar density is assumed to follow a power law, rho ~ 1/r^gamma, with gamma=1 or gamma=2. At low energies the motion…
This talk provides a progress report on an extended collaboration which has aimed to address two basic questions, namely: Should one expect to see cuspy, triaxial galaxies in nature? And can one construct realistic cuspy, triaxial…
We present a detailed analysis of the behavior of the triaxial Schwarzschild orbit superposition method near the axisymmetric limit. Orbit superposition modeling is the primary method used to determine dynamical masses of supermassive black…
We use Schwarzschild's orbit superposition method to build self-consistent models of elliptical galaxies with scale-free potentials. Our exhaustive study of all physical shapes and central densities for galaxies with scale-free potentials…
Most of the super massive black hole mass estimates based on stellar kinematics use the assumption that galaxies are axisymmetric oblate spheroids or spherical. Here we use fully general triaxial orbit-based models to explore the effect of…
Supermassive black holes can be seen as an agent of galaxy transformation. In particular, a supermassive black hole can cause a triaxial galaxy to evolve toward axisymmetry by inducing chaos in centrophilic orbit families. This is one way…
We present a flexible and efficient method to construct triaxial dynamical models of galaxies with a central black hole, using Schwarzschild's orbital superposition approach. Our method is general and can deal with realistic luminosity…
Dynamical modelling can be used to constrain the masses of central black holes; however, modelling massive galaxies is challenging due to their complexity. In this work, we report six new supermassive black hole mass measurements of massive…
We have constructed realistic, self-consistent models of triaxial elliptical galaxies embedded in triaxial dark matter haloes. We examined three different models for the shape of the dark matter halo: (i) the same axis ratios as the…
Luminous galaxies and their dark halos are likely to have triaxial shapes. The construction of distribution functions for triaxial systems is a hard problem, due to the existence of only one exact integral of motion, the energy $E$. Even…
I present an elementary primer of black hole physics, including its general relativity basis, all peppered with astrophysical illustrations. Following a brief review of the process stellar collapse to a black hole, I discuss the…
We construct triaxial dynamical models for the Milky Way nuclear star cluster using Schwarzschild's orbit superposition technique. We fit the stellar kinematic maps presented in Feldmeier et al. (2014). The models are used to constrain the…
We use numerical simulations to study the evolution of triaxial elliptical galaxies with central black holes. In contrast to earlier numerical studies which used galaxy models with central density ``cores,'' our galaxies have steep central…
We investigate the orbital structure of a model triaxial star cluster, centered around a supermassive black hole (BH), appropriate to galactic nuclei. Sridhar and Touma (1999) proved that the presence of the BH enforces some regularity in…
We have constructed realistic, self-consistent models of triaxial elliptical galaxies embedded in triaxial dark matter halos. Self-consistent solutions by means of the standard orbital superposition technique introduced by Schwarzschild…
Supermassive black holes containing ~0.5% of the stellar mass of their host galaxies appear to be ubiquitous components of galactic nuclei. The gravitational force from these central singularities can influence the motion of stars far…
Evidence for the majority of the supermassive black holes in the local universe has been obtained dynamically from stellar motions with the Schwarzschild orbit superposition method. However, there have been only a handful of studies using…
HST observations have revealed that compact sources exist at the centers of many, maybe even most, galaxies across the Hubble sequence. These sources are called "nuclei" or also "nuclear star clusters" (NCs), given that their structural…