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Related papers: Massive Black Holes in Star Clusters. I. Equal-mas…

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Motivated by JWST observations of dense, clumpy and clustered high redshift star formation, we simulate the hierarchical assembly of nine $M_{\mathrm{cl}}=10^6 M_\odot$ star clusters using the BIFROST N-body code. Our low metallicity models…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-09-08 Antti Rantala , Thorsten Naab

The existence of supermassive black holes lurking in the centers of galaxies and of stellar binary systems containing a black hole with a few solar masses has been established beyond reasonable doubt. The idea that black holes of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-06-23 S. Rosswog , E. Ramirez-Ruiz , W. R. Hix , M. Dan

Young star clusters are the most common birth-place of massive stars and are dynamically active environments. Here, we study the formation of black holes (BHs) and binary black holes (BBHs) in young star clusters, by means of 6000 N-body…

Repeated mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs) in dense star clusters can produce intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). In particular, nuclear star clusters at the centers of galaxies have deep enough potential wells to retain most of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-07-20 Giacomo Fragione , Abraham Loeb , Bence Kocsis , Frederic A. Rasio

We examine the effect of an accretion disc on the orbits of stars in the central star cluster surrounding a central massive black hole by performing a suite of 39 high-accuracy direct N-body simulations using state-of-the art software and…

We explore how the co-evolution of massive black holes (MBHs) and galaxies is affected by environmental effects, addressing in particular MBHs hosted in the central galaxies of clusters (we will refer to these galaxies in general as 'CGs').…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Marta Volonteri , Luca Ciotti

We present calculations on the formation of massive black holes with 10^5 Msun at z > 6 that can be the seeds of supermassive black holes at z > 6. Under the assumption of compact star cluster formation in merging galaxies, star clusters in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-02-17 Hidenobu Yajima , Sadegh Khochfar

It has been suggested that an intermediate-massive black hole (IMBH) with mass $10^{3-5} M_\odot$ could fall into the galactic center (GC) and form a massive black hole binary (MBHB) with the central supermassive black hole, but current…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-12 Xian Chen , F. K. Liu

The evolution of a supermassive black hole in the center of galaxy is considered. We analyze the kinetic equation describing relaxation processes associated with stellar encounters. The initial distribution function of stars is assumed to…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 V. A. Sirota , A. S. Ilyin , K. P. Zybin , A. V. Gurevich

We use N-body simulations to study the evolution of the orbital eccentricities of stars deposited near (<0.05 pc) the Milky Way massive black hole (MBH), starting from initial conditions motivated by two competing models for their origin:…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2009-08-24 Hagai B. Perets , Alessia Gualandris , Gabor Kupi , David Merritt , Tal Alexander

Understanding binary black hole (BBH) dynamics in dense star clusters is key to interpreting the gravitational wave detections by LIGO and Virgo. Here, we perform $N$-body simulations of star clusters, focusing on BBH formation mechanisms,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-02-14 Jordan Barber , Fabio Antonini

Although supermassive black holes (SMBHs) correlate well with their host galaxies, there is an emerging view that outliers exist. Henize 2-10, NGC 4889, and NGC1277 are examples of SMBHs at least an order of magnitude more massive than…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-19 Fazeel Khan , Kelly Holley-Bockelmann , Peter Berczik

Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies occasionally disrupt stars or consume stellar-mass black holes (BHs) that wander too close, producing observable electromagnetic or gravitational wave signals. We examine how mass…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-10 Barak Rom , Re'em Sari

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…

Almost all galaxies along the Hubble sequence host a compact massive object (CMO) in their center. The CMO can be either a supermassive black hole (SMBH) or a very dense stellar cluster, also known as nuclear star cluster (NSC). Generally,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-08-23 Mario Spera , Manuel Arca-Sedda , Roberto Capuzzo-Dolcetta

We investigate the interaction of a massive globular cluster (GC) with a super massive black hole (SMBH), located at the centre of its host galaxy, by means of direct N-body simulations. The results show that tidal distortions induced by…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-01-19 Manuel Arca-Sedda , Roberto Capuzzo-Dolcetta , Mario Spera

The density of stars in galactic bulges is often observed to be flat or slowly rising inside the influence radius of the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Attributing the dynamical friction force to stars moving more slowly than the test…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-30 Fabio Antonini , David Merritt

We study the compact binary population in star clusters, focusing on binaries containing black holes, using a self-consistent Monte Carlo treatment of dynamics and full stellar evolution. We find that the black holes experience strong mass…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2011-04-07 J. M. B. Downing , M. J. Benacquista , M. Giersz , R. Spurzem

Hundreds of stellar-mass black holes likely form in a typical globular star cluster, with all but one predicted to be ejected through dynamical interactions. Some observational support for this idea is provided by the lack of X-ray-emitting…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-11 Jay Strader , Laura Chomiuk , Thomas Maccarone , James Miller-Jones , Anil Seth

We explore the possibility that massive black holes comprise a significant fraction of the dark matter of our galaxy by studying the dissolution of galactic globular clusters bombarded by them. In our simulations, we evolve the clusters…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Phil Arras , Ira Wasserman