Related papers: The Stellar Dynamics of M87
We perform numerical simulations of solid particle motion in a shearing box model of a protoplanetary disc. The accretion flow is turbulent due to the action of the magnetorotational instability. Aerodynamic drag on the particles is…
When surrounded by a transparent emission region, black holes are expected to reveal a dark shadow caused by gravitational light bending and photon capture at the event horizon. To image and study this phenomenon, we have assembled the…
We analyze the Illustris-1 hydrodynamical cosmological simulation to explore the stellar velocity dispersion of quiescent galaxies as an observational probe of dark matter halo velocity dispersion and mass. Stellar velocity dispersion is…
By exploiting two ACS/HST datasets separated by a temporal baseline of ~7 years, we have determined the relative stellar proper motions (providing membership) and the absolute proper motion of the Galactic globular cluster M71. The absolute…
Dark matter dominates the properties of large cosmological structures such as galaxy clusters, and the mass profiles of the dark matter have been measured for these equilibrated structures for years using X-rays, lensing or galaxy…
The detection of rapidly variable gamma-ray emission in active galactic nuclei has generated renewed interest in magnetospheric particle acceleration and emission scenarios. In order to explore its potential, we study the possibility of…
Stellar dynamical modeling is a powerful method to determine the mass of black holes in quiescent galaxies. However, in previous work the presence of a dark matter halo has been ignored in the modeling. Gebhardt & Thomas (2009) showed that…
We study the Globular Cluster (GC) system of the nearby elliptical galaxy M87 using the newly available dataset with accurate kinematics (Strader et al.2011). We find evidence for three distinct sub-populations of GCs in terms of colours,…
We study the evolution of globular clusters with mass spectra under the influence of the steady Galactic tidal field, including the effects of velocity anisotropy. Similar to single-mass models, velocity anisotropy develops as the cluster…
The mass and anisotropy of an elliptical galaxy can be simultaneously determined from velocity dispersion and line profile shape measurements. We describe the principles, techniques, and limitations of this approach, and the results…
We examine the amplitude of the rotation velocity that can be attributed to the dark matter halos of disk galaxies, focusing on well measured intermediate radii. The data for 60 galaxies spanning a large range of mass and Hubble types,…
We derive the radial acceleration of stars in galaxies by using basic features of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and general relativity. We assume that the "dark" component of the radial acceleration is originated from the reaction…
In the past several years high resolution kinematic data sets from Milky Way satellite galaxies have confirmed earlier indications that these systems are dark matter dominated objects. Further understanding of what these galaxies reveal…
We add to the lore of spherical, stellar-system models a two-parameter family with an anisotropic velocity dispersion, and a central point mass (``black hole''). The ratio of the tangential to radial dispersions, is constant--and…
The luminosities of the centers of nearby elliptical galaxies are very low compared to models of thin disc accretion to their black holes at the Bondi rate, typically a few hundredths to a few tenths of a solar mass per year. This has…
We use extensive measurements of the cluster A1689 to assess the expected similarity in the dynamics of galaxies and dark matter (DM) in their motion as collisionless `particles' in the cluster gravitational potential. To do so we derive…
The spatial distribution of stars in a disk of a galaxy can be described by a radial scale length and a vertical scale height. The ratio of these two scale parameters contains information on the axis ratio of the velocity ellipsoid, i.e.…
We present the results of a wide-field [O III] $\lambda 5007$ survey for planetary nebulae (PN) in M87 and its surrounding halo. We show that the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) of M87's halo is unlike any PNLF observed to date,…
We have obtained deep, long-slit spectroscopy along the major axis of NGC 6166, the cD galaxy in the cluster Abell 2199, in order to measure the kinematics of intracluster starlight at large radii. The velocity dispersion rises beyond a few…
We show for the first time the direct time variable radio images in the context of shocked accretion flows around a black hole under the general relativistic treatment of both hydrodynamics and radiation transfer. Time variability around a…