Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:24:03.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The formation of intermediate mass black holes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2016

Simon F. Portegies Zwart
Simon F. Portegies Zwart*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We study the growth rate of stars in dense star clusters by stellar collisions. Our analytic calculations are in good agreement with direct N-body simulations with up to 65536 stars performed on the GRAPE family of computers. We find that star clusters with a half mass relaxation time ≲ 20 Myr are dominated by stellar collisions. The first collision occurs at the moment of core collapse. The collision dominated phase last until the cluster dissolves in the tidal field of the Galaxy or mass loss by stellar evolution arrests core collapse. The majority of collisions occur with the same star resulting in the uncontrolled growth of a super massive object. This object can grow up to ∼ 0.08% of the mass of the entire star cluster. This mass ratio is comparable to the ratio of the mass of Galactic bulges to their central black hole. Star clusters which are older than about 4 Myr and with a half mass relaxation time ≲ 80 Myr are expected to contain the remnant of a phase of uncontrolled growth in their cores.

Type
Stellar Dynamics and Stellar Evolution
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 208: Astrophysical Supercomputing using Particle Simulations , 2003 , pp. 145 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2003 

References

Bettwieser, E., Sugimoto, D. 1984, MNRAS, 208, 493 Google Scholar
Binney, J., Tremaine, S. 1987, Galactic dynamics, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1987, 747 p.Google Scholar
Cohn, H. 1980, ApJ, 242, 765 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dwek, E., Arendt, R. G., Hauser, M. G., Kelsall, T., Lisse, C. M., Moseley, S. H., Silverberg, R. F., Sodroski, T. J., Weiland, J. L. 1995, ApJ, 445, 716 Google Scholar
Ebisuzaki, T., Makino, J., Tsuru, T.G., Funato, Y., Portegies Zwart, S.F., Hut, P., McMillan, S.L.W., Matsushita, S., Matsumoto, H., Kawabe, R., ApJ in press (astro-ph/0106252) Google Scholar
Eckart, A., Genzel, R. 1997, MNRAS, 284, 576 Google Scholar
Fabbiano, G., Zezas, A., Murray, S. S. 2001, ApJ, 554, 1035 Google Scholar
Gerhard, O. 2001, ApJ, 546, L39 Google Scholar
Ghez, A. M., Klein, B. L., Morris, M., Becklin, E. E. 1998, ApJ, 509, 678 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, J. 1987, ApJ, 313, 576 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hut, P., Inagaki, S. 1985, ApJ, 298, 502 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makino, J. 1996, ApJ, 471, 796 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makino, J., Hut, P. 1990, ApJ, 365, 208 Google Scholar
Makino, J., Taiji, M., Ebisuzaki, T., Sugimoto, D. 1997, ApJ, 480, 432 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, H., Tsuru, T. G., Koyama, K., Awaki, H., Canizares, C. R., Kawai, N., Matsushita, S., Kawabe, R. 2001, ApJ, 547, L25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matsushita, S., Kawabe, R., Matsumoto, H., Tsuru, T. G., Kohno, K., Morita, K., Okumura, S. K., Vila-Vilaró, B. 2000, ApJ, 545, L107 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mengel, S., Lehnert, M. D., Thatte, N., Tacconi-Garman, L. E., Genzel, R. 2001, ApJ, 550, 280 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mezger, P. G., Zylka, R., Philipp, S., Launhardt, R. 1999, A&A, 348, 457 Google Scholar
Portegies Zwart, S. F., Makino, J., McMillan, S. L. W., Hut, P. 1999, A&A, 348, 117 Google Scholar
Portegies Zwart, S. F., Makino, J., McMillan, S. L. W., Hut, P. 2001a, ApJ, 546, L101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portegies Zwart, S. F., McMillan, S. L. W. 2000, ApJ, 528, L17 Google Scholar
Portegies Zwart, S. F., McMillan, S. L. W., Hut, P., Makino, J. 2001b, MNRAS, 321, 199 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salpeter, E. E. 1955, ApJ, 121, 161 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scalo, J. M. 1986, Fund. of Cosm. Phys., 11, 1 Google Scholar
Spitzer, L. 1987, Dynamical evolution of globular clusters, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1987, 191 p.Google Scholar
van der Marel, R. P. 2001, in Black Holes in Binaries and Galactic Nuclei. Proceedings of the ESO Workshop held at Garching, Germany, 6-8 September 1999. Kaper, Lex, van den Heuvel, Edward P. J., Woudt, Patrick A. (eds.), p. 246. Springer, p. 246+.Google Scholar
Wandel, A. 1999, ApJ, 519, L39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wandel, A. 2001, in submitted to the ApJ, 8461 Google Scholar