Related papers: Stellar remnants in galactic nuclei: mass segregat…
We perform a suite of high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to investigate the orbital decay and mass evolution of massive black hole (MBH) pairs down to scales of ~30 pc during minor mergers of disk galaxies. Our…
We study the observational constraints on the cosmic evolution of the relationships between the massive black hole (MBH) mass (M_bh) and the stellar mass (M^*_sph; or velocity dispersion \sigma) of the host galaxy/spheroid. Assuming that…
We study the role of massive perturbers (MPs) in deflecting stars and binaries to almost radial ("loss-cone") orbits, where they pass near the central massive black hole (MBH), interact with it at periapse, and are ultimately destroyed. MPs…
In low-metallicity environments, massive stars might avoid supernova explosion and directly collapse, forming massive (~25-80 solar masses) stellar black holes (MSBHs), at the end of their life. MSBHs, when hosted in young massive clusters,…
The binding energy liberated by the coalescence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries during galaxy mergers is thought to be responsible for the low density cores often found in bright elliptical galaxies. We use high-resolution…
We present preliminary results of the application of a new sophisticated code which allows high precision integration of orbits of stars belonging to a dense stellar system moving in the vicinity of a massive black hole. This mimics the…
Upon their formation, dynamically cool (collapsing) star clusters will, within only a few million years, achieve stellar mass segregation for stars down to a few solar masses, simply because of gravitational two-body encounters. Since…
The centers of stellar spheroids are often marked by the presence of nucleated central regions, called nuclear star clusters (NSCs). The origin of NSCs is still unclear. Here we investigate the possibility that NSCs originate from the…
We review the current state of dynamical modeling for galaxies in terms of being able to measure both the central black hole mass and stellar orbital structure. Both of these must be known adequately to measure either property. The current…
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…
Mergers between stellar-mass black holes will be key sources of gravitational radiation for ground-based detectors. However, the rates of these events are highly uncertain, given that such systems are invisible. One formation scenario…
We investigate the evolution of intermediate-mass (IMBHs), stellar (BHs) and binary black holes (BHBs), deposited near a supermassive black hole (SMBH) by a population of massive star clusters. Stellar BHs rapidly segregate around the SMBH,…
The massive Galactic black hole and the stars around it are a unique laboratory for studying how relaxation processes lead to close interactions of stars and compact remnants with the central massive black hole, in particular those leading…
We present a study on the dynamics of massive BHs in galaxy mergers, obtained from a series of high-resolution N-Body/SPH simulations. The presence of a gaseous component is essential for the rapid formation of an eccentric (Keplerian) BH…
Fragmentation of highly differentially rotating massive stars that undergo collapse has been suggested as a possible channel for binary black hole formation. Such a scenario could explain the formation of the new population of massive black…
This article intends to provide a concise overview, from an observational point-of-view, of the current state of our knowledge of the most relevant properties of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (MWNSC). The MWNSC appears to be a…
Supermassive black holes are found in most galactic nuclei. A large fraction of these nuclei also contain a nuclear stellar cluster surrounding the black hole. Here we consider the idea that the nuclear stellar cluster formed first and that…
The center of our Galaxy is known to host a massive compact object, Sgr A$^*$, which is commonly considered as a super-massive black hole of $\sim 4\times 10^6$ M$_\odot$. It is surrounded by a dense and massive nuclear star cluster, with a…
Abridged: In one widely discussed model for the formation of nuclear star clusters (NSCs), massive globular clusters spiral into the center of a galaxy and merge to form the nucleus. It is now known that at least some NSCs coexist with…
The Galactic Centre (GC) is a unique place to study the extreme dynamical processes occurring near a super-massive black hole (SMBH). Here we investigate the role of supernova (SN) explosions occurring in massive binary systems lying in a…