by Lou, Yu-Qing and Wu, Yi-Hong

There have been reports of possible detections of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs). Empirically, there exists a tight correlation between the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the mean velocity dispersion of elliptical galaxies, “pseudobulges” and classical bulges of spiral galaxies. We explore such a possible correlation for IMBHs in spherical GCs. In our model of self-similar general polytropic quasi-static dynamic evolution of GCs, a criterion of forming an IMBH is proposed. The key result is M(BH) = L o^1/(1-n) where M(BH) is the IMBH mass, o is the GC mean stellar velocity, L is a coefficient, and 2/3 < n < 1.

by Rodriguez, Carl L. and Mandel, Ilya and Gair, Jonathan R.
12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRD

The detection of gravitational waves from the inspiral of a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole into an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) promises an entirely new look at strong-field gravitational physics. Gravitational waves from these intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs), systems with mass ratios from ~10:1 to ~100:1, may be detectable at rates of up to a few tens per year by Advanced LIGO/Virgo and will encode a signature of the central body’s spacetime. Direct observation of the spacetime will allow us to use the “no-hair” theorem of general relativity to determine if the IMBH is a Kerr black hole (or some more exotic object, e.g. a boson star). Using modified post-Newtonian (pN) waveforms, we explore the prospects for constraining the central body’s mass-quadrupole moment in the advanced-detector era. We use the Fisher information matrix to estimate the accuracy with which the parameters of the central body can be measured. We find that for favorable mass and spin combinations, the quadrupole moment of a non-Kerr central body can be measured to within a ~15% fractional error or better using 3.5 pN order waveforms; on the other hand, we find the accuracy decreases to ~100% fractional error using 2 pN waveforms, except for a narrow band of values of the best-fit non-Kerr quadrupole moment.

by Marx, Jay and Danzmann, Karsten and Hough, James and Kuroda, Kazuaki and McClelland, David and Mours, Benoit and Phinney, Sterl and Rowan, Sheila and Sathyaprakash, B. and Vetrano, Flavio and Vitale, Stefano and Whitcomb, Stan and Will, Clifford
116 pages. Original document in higher resolution can be found at https://gwic.ligo.org/roadmap/

Gravitational wave science is on the verge of direct observation of the waves predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and opening the exciting new field of gravitational wave astronomy. In the coming decades, ultra-sensitive arrays of ground-based instruments and complementary spaced-based instruments will observe the gravitational wave sky, inevitably discovering entirely unexpected phenomena while providing new insight into many of the most profound astrophysical phenomena known. in July 2007 the Gravitational Wave International Committee (GWIC) initiated the development of a strategic roadmap for the field of gravitational wave science with a 30-year horizon. The goal of this roadmap is to serve the international gravitational wave community and its stakeholders as a tool for the development of capabilities and facilities needed to address the exciting scientific opportunities on the intermediate and long-term horizons.

by Huerta, E. A. and Gair, Jonathan R. and Brown, Duncan A.
22 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1105.3567

We extend the numerical kludge waveform model introduced in [1] in two ways. We extend the equations of motion for spinning black hole binaries derived by Saijo et al. [2] using spin-orbit and spin-spin couplings taken from perturbative and post-Newtonian (PN) calculations at the highest order available. We also include first-order conservative self-force corrections for spin-orbit and spin-spin couplings, which are derived by comparison to PN results. We generate the inspiral evolution using fluxes that include the most recent calculations of small body spin corrections, spin-spin and spin-orbit couplings and higher-order fits to solutions of the Teukolsky equation. Using a simplified version of this model in [1], we found that small body spin effects may be measured through gravitational wave observations from intermediate-mass ratio inspirals (IMRIs) with mass ratio eta ~ 0.001, when both binary components are rapidly rotating. In this paper we study in detail how the spin of the small/big body affects parameter measurement using a variety of mass and spin combinations for typical IMRIs sources. We find that for IMRI events of a moderately rotating intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) of 10^4 solar masses, and a rapidly rotating central supermassive black hole (SMBH) of 10^6 solar masses, gravitational wave observations made with LISA at a fixed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 1000 will be able to determine the inspiralling IMBH mass, the central SMBH mass, the SMBH spin magnitude, and the IMBH spin magnitude to within fractional errors of ~10^{-3}, 10^{-3}, 10^{-4}, and 9%, respectively. LISA can also determine the location of the source in the sky and the SMBH spin orientation to within ~10^{-4} steradians. We show that by including conservative corrections up to 2.5PN order, systematic errors no longer dominate over statistical errors for IMRIs with typical SNR ~1000.

by Kocsis, Bence and Levin, Janna
14 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D

Galactic nuclei are densely populated by stellar mass compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars. Bound, highly eccentric binaries form as a result of gravitational wave (GW) losses during close flybys between these objects. We study the evolution of these systems using 2.5 and 3.5 order post-Newtonian equations of motion. The GW signal consists of many thousand repeated bursts (RB) for minutes to days (depending on the impact parameter and masses), followed by a powerful GW chirp and an eccentric merger. We show that a significant signal to noise ratio (SNR) accumulates already in the RB phase, corresponding to a detection limit around 200–300 Mpc and 300–600 Mpc for Advanced LIGO for an average orientation BH/NS or BH/BH binary, respectively. The theoretical errors introduced by the inaccuracy of the PN templates are typically much less severe for the RB phase than in the following eccentric merger. The GW signal in the RB phase is broadband; we show that encounters involving intermediate mass black holes are detectable in multiple frequency bands coincidentally using LIGO and LISA.

by Konstantinidis, Symeon and Amaro-Seoane, Pau and Kokkotas, Kostas D.
Submitted

Contrary to supermassive and stellar-mass black holes (SBHs), the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) with masses ranging between 100 and 10,000 Msun has not yet been confirmed. The main problem in the detection is that the innermost stellar kinematics of globular clusters (GCs), the natural loci to IMBHs, are very difficult to resolve. However, if IMBHs reside in the center of GCs, a possibility is that they interact dynamically with their enviroment. A binary formed with the IMBH and a compact object of the GC would naturally lead to a prominent source of gravitational radiation, detectable with future observatories. We run for the first time direct-summation integrations of GCs with an IMBH including the dynamical evolution of the IMBH with the stellar system and relativistic effects, such as energy loss in gravitational waves (GWs) and periapsis shift, and gravitational recoil. We find in one of our models an intermediate-mass ratio inspiral (IMRI), which leads to a merger with a recoiling velocity higher than the escape velocity of the GC. The GWs emitted fall in the range of frequencies that a LISA-like observatory could detect, like the European eLISA or in mission options considered in the recent preliminary mission study conducted in China. The merger has an impact on the global dynamics of the cluster, as an important heating source is removed when the merged system leaves the GC. The detection of one IMRI would constitute a test of GR, as well as an irrefutable proof of the existence of IMBHs.

by Han, Wen-Biao and Cao, Zhoujian
11 pages, 7 figures and 2 tables

A new scheme for computing dynamical evolutions and gravitational radiations for intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs) based on an effective one-body (EOB) dynamics plus Teukolsky perturbation theory is built in this paper. In the EOB framework, the dynamics essentially affects the resulted gravitational waveform for binary compact star system. This dynamics includes two parts. One is the conservative part which comes from effective one-body reduction. The other part is the gravitational back reaction which contributes to the shrinking process of the inspiral of binary compact star system. Previous works used analytical waveform to construct this back reaction term. Since the analytical form is based on post-Newtonian expansion, the consistency of this term is always checked by numerical energy flux. Here we directly use numerical energy flux by solving the Teukolsky equation via the frequency-domain method to construct this back reaction term. And the conservative correction to the leading order terms in mass-ratio is included in the deformed-Kerr metric and the EOB Hamiltonian. We try to use this method to simulate not only quasi-circular adiabatic inspiral but also the nonadiabatic plunge phase. For several different spinning black holes, we demonstrate and compare the resulted dynamical evolutions and gravitational waveforms.

by Lützgendorf, N. and Kissler-Patig, M. and Noyola, E. and Jalali, B. and de Zeeuw, P. T. and Gebhardt, K. and Baumgardt, H.
12 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are of interest in a wide range of astrophysical fields. In particular, the possibility of finding them at the centers of globular clusters has recently drawn attention. IMBHs became detectable since the quality of observational data sets, particularly those obtained with HST and with high resolution ground based spectrographs, advanced to the point where it is possible to measure velocity dispersions at a spatial resolution comparable to the size of the gravitational sphere of influence for plausible IMBH masses. We present results from ground based VLT/FLAMES spectroscopy in combination with HST data for the globular cluster NGC 6388. The aim of this work is to probe whether this massive cluster hosts an intermediate-mass black hole at its center and to compare the results with the expected value predicted by the $latex M_{\bullet} – \sigma$ scaling relation. The spectroscopic data, containing integral field unit measurements, provide kinematic signatures in the center of the cluster while the photometric data give information of the stellar density. Together, these data sets are compared to dynamical models and present evidence of an additional compact dark mass at the center: a black hole. Using analytical Jeans models in combination with various Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the errors, we derive (with 68% confidence limits) a best fit black-hole mass of $latex (17 \pm 9) \times 10^3 M_{\odot}$ and a global mass-to-light ratio of $latex M/L_V = (1.6 \pm 0.3) \ M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$.

by Lang, Meagan and Holley-Bockelmann, Kelly and Bogdanovic, Tamara and Amaro-Seoane, Pau and Sesana, Alberto
9 pages, 1 figure, submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome and may be incorporated into the paper with attribution

Observations of the Galactic Center (GC) have accumulated a multitude of “forensic” evidence indicating that several million years ago the center of the Milky Way galaxy was teaming with starforming and accretion-powered activity — this paints a rather different picture from the GC as we understand it today. We examine a possibility that this epoch of activity could have been triggered by the infall of a satellite galaxy into the Milky Way which began at the redshift of 10 and ended few million years ago with a merger of the Galactic supermassive black hole with an intermediate mass black hole brought in by the inspiralling satellite.

by Goswami, Sanghamitra and Umbreit, Stefan and Bierbaum, Matt and Rasio, Frederic A.

A promising mechanism to form intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) is the runaway merger in dense star clusters, where main-sequence stars collide and form a very massive star (VMS), which then collapses to a black hole. In this paper we study the effects of primordial mass segregation and the importance of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) on the runaway growth of VMSs using a dynamical Monte Carlo code for N-body systems with N as high as 10^6 stars. Our code now includes an explicit treatment of all stellar collisions. We place special emphasis on the possibility of top-heavy IMFs, as observed in some very young massive clusters. We find that both primordial mass segregation and the shape of the IMF affect the rate of core collapse of star clusters and thus the time of the runaway. When we include primordial mass segregation we generally see a decrease in core collapse time (tcc). Moreover, primordial mass segregation increases the average mass in the core, thus reducing the central relaxation time, which also decreases tcc. The final mass of the VMS formed is always close to \sim 10^-3 of the total cluster mass, in agreement with the previous studies and is reminiscent of the observed correlation between the central black hole mass and the bulge mass of the galaxies. As the degree of primordial mass segregation is increased, the mass of the VMS increases at most by a factor of 3. Flatter IMFs generally increase the average mass in the whole cluster, which increases tcc. For the range of IMFs investigated in this paper, this increase in tcc is to some degree balanced by stellar collisions, which accelerate core collapse. Thus there is no significant change in tcc for the somewhat flatter global IMFs observed in very young massive clusters.

by Pani, Paolo and Cardoso, Vitor and Gualtieri, Leonardo
RevTex4, 18 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

Dynamical Chern-Simons gravity is an interesting extension of General Relativity, which finds its way in many different contexts, including string theory, cosmological settings and loop quantum gravity. In this theory, the gravitational field is coupled to a scalar field by a parity-violating term, which gives rise to characteristic signatures. Here we investigate how Chern-Simons gravity would affect the quasi-circular inspiralling of a small, stellar-mass object into a large non-rotating supermassive black hole, and the accompanying emission of gravitational and scalar waves. We find the relevant equations describing the perturbation induced by the small object, and we solve them through the use of Green’s function techniques. Our results show that for a wide range of coupling parameters, the Chern-Simons coupling gives rise to an increase in total energy flux, which translates into a fewer number of gravitational-wave cycles over a certain bandwidth. For space-based gravitational-wave detectors such as LISA, this effect can be used to constrain the coupling parameter effectively.

by Lu, Ting-Ni and Kong, Albert K. H.
Accepted by ApJL

We present results of deep radio continuum observations of two galactic globular clusters 47 Tucanae (47 Tuc) and Omega Centauri (Omega Cen) with Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). No statistically significant evidence for radio emission was found from the central region for the two clusters. However, both clusters show a 2.5-sigma detection near the center that may be confirmed by future deeper radio observations. The 3-sigma upper limits of the radio observations is 20 and 40 microJy/beam for Omega Cen and 47 Tuc, respectively. By using the fundamental plane of accreting black holes which describes the relationship between radio luminosity, X-ray luminosity and black hole mass, we constrain the mass of a possible intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) in the globualar clusters. We also compare our results with other globular clusters and discuss the existence of IMBHs in globular clusters.

by Harris, William E.
6 pages, 4 figures

A new revision of the McMaster catalog of Milky Way globular clusters is available. This is the first update since 2003 and the biggest single revision since the original version of the catalog published in 1996. The list now contains a total of 157 objects classified as globular clusters. Major upgrades have been made especially to the cluster coordinates, metallicities, and structural profile parameters, and the list of parameters now also includes central velocity dispersion.

NB: This paper is a stand-alone publication available only on the astro-ph archive; it will not be published separately in a journal.

by Norman, Michael L.
11 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of “The First Stars and Galaxies: Challenges for the Next Decade”, Austin, TX, March 8-11, 2010

We provide a status report on our current understanding of the mass scales for Pop III.1 and Pop III.2 stars. Since the last review (Norman 2008), substantial progress has been made both numerically and analytically on the late stages of protostellar cloud core collapse, protostar formation and accretion, and stellar evolution taking into account cloud core properties and radiative feedback effects. Based on this, there are growing indications that primordial stars forming from purely cosmological initial conditions (Pop III.1) were substantially more massive than stars forming in preionized gas (Pop III.2) where HD cooling is important. Different stellar endpoints are predicted for these two types of Pop III stars with different chemical enrichment signatures: the former die as pair instability supernovae or intermediate mass black holes, whereas the latter die as iron core-collapse supernovae, leaving behind neutron star and stellar black hole remnants. We review recent simulations which show evidence for binary fragmentation at high densities, and comment on the significance of these results. We then summarize an attempt to directly calculate the Pop III.1 IMF taking into account the latest numerical and analytical models. We conclude with suggestions for the kind of simulations needed next to continue improving our understanding of Pop III star formation, which is a necessary input to understanding high redshift galaxy formation.

by Clausen, Drew and Eracleous, Michael
19 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We calculate the emission line spectrum produced by the debris released when a white dwarf (WD) is tidally disrupted by an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; $latex M\sim 10^{2}-10^{5}\msun$) and we explore the possibility of using the emission lines to identify such events and constrain the properties of the IMBH. To this end, we adopt and adapt the techniques developed by Strubbe & Quataert to study the optical emission lines produced when a main sequence (MS) star is tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole. WDs are tidally disrupted outside of the event horizon of a $latex < 10^{5}\msun$ black hole, which makes these tidal disruption events good signposts of IMBHs. We focus on the optical and UV emission lines produced when the accretion flare photoionizes the stream of debris that remains unbound during the disruption. We find that the spectrum is dominated by lines due to ions of C and O, the strongest of which are \ion{C}{4} $latex \lambda$1549 at early times and [\ion{O}{3}] $latex \lambda$5007 at later times. Furthermore, we model the profile of the emission lines in the [\ion{O}{3}] $latex \lambda\lambda$4959, 5007 doublet and find that it is highly asymmetric with velocity widths of up to $latex \sim 2500 \rm{\;km\;s^{-1}}$, depending on the properties of the WD-IMBH system and the orientation of the observer. Finally, we compare the models with observations of X-ray flares and optical emission lines in the cores of globular clusters and propose how future observations can test if these features are due to a WD that has been tidally disrupted by an IMBH.

by Moeckel, Nickolas and Clarke, Cathie J.
8 pages, submitted to MNRAS. Includes revisions per referee’s comments

We investigate the contraction of accreting protoclusters using an extension of n-body techniques that incorporates the accretional growth of stars from the gaseous reservoir in which they are embedded. Following on from Monte Carlo studies by Davis et al., we target our experiments toward populous clusters likely to experience collisions as a result of accretion-driven contraction. We verify that in less extreme star forming environments, similar to Orion, the stellar density is low enough that collisions are unimportant, but that conditions suitable for stellar collisions are much more easily satisfied in large-n clusters, i.e. n ~ 30,000 (we argue, however, that the density of the Arches cluster is insufficient for us to expect stellar collisions to have occurred in the cluster’s prior evolution). We find that the character of the collision process is not such that it is a route toward smoothly filling the top end of the mass spectrum. Instead, runaway growth of one or two extreme objects can occur within less than 1 Myr after accretion is shut off, resulting in a few objects with masses several times the maximum reached by accretion. The rapid formation of these objects is due to not just the post-formation dynamical evolution of the clusters, but an interplay of dynamics and the accretional growth of the stars. We find that accretion-driven cluster shrinkage results in a distribution of gas and stars that offsets the disruptive effect of gas expulsion, and we propose that the process can lead to massive binaries and early mass segregation in star clusters.

by Bellovary, Jillian and Governato, Fabio and Quinn, Tom and Wadsley, James and Shen, Sijing and Volonteri, Marta
Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

We perform SPH+N-body cosmological simulations of massive disk galaxies, including a formalism for black hole seed formation and growth, and find that satellite galaxies containing supermassive black hole seeds are often stripped as they merge with the primary galaxy. These events naturally create a population of “wandering” black holes that are the remnants of stripped satellite cores; galaxies like the Milky Way may host 5 — 15 of these objects within their halos. The satellites that harbor black hole seeds are comparable to Local Group dwarf galaxies such as the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds; these galaxies are promising candidates to host nearby intermediate mass black holes. Provided that these wandering black holes retain a gaseous accretion disk from their host dwarf galaxy, they give a physical explanation for the origin and observed properties of some recently discovered off-nuclear ultraluminous X-ray sources such as HLX-1.

by Lousto, Carlos O. and Nakano, Hiroyuki and Zlochower, Yosef and Campanelli, Manuela
31 pages, 33 figures revtex 4

We describe in detail full numerical and perturbative techniques to compute the gravitational radiation from intermediate mass ratio (IMR) black-hole-binary (BHB) inspirals and mergers. We perform a series of full numerical simulations of nonspinning black holes with mass ratios q=1/10 and q=1/15 from different initial separations and for different finite difference resolutions. The highest resolution runs reach phase accuracies with errors <0.05 radians when the gravitational wave frequency is 0.2/M. In order to perform those full numerical runs, we adapted the gauge of the moving punctures approach with a variable damping term for the shift. We also derive an extrapolation (to infinite radius) formula for the waveform extracted at finite radius. For the perturbative evolutions we use the full numerical tracks, transformed into the Schwarzschild gauge, in the source terms of the Regge-Wheller-Zerilli Schwarzschild perturbations formalism. We then extend this perturbative formalism to take into account small intrinsic spins of the large black hole, and validate it by computing the quasinormal mode (QNM) frequencies, where we find good agreement for spins |a/M|<0.3. Including the final spins improves the overlap functions when comparing full numerical and perturbative waveforms, reaching 99.5% for the leading (l,m)=(2,2) and (3,3) modes, and 98.3% for the nonleading (2,1) mode in the q=1/10 case, which includes 8 orbits before merger. For the q=1/15 case, we obtain overlaps near 99.7% for all three modes. We discuss the modeling of the full inspiral and merger based on a combined matching of Post-Newtonian, Full Numerical, and Geodesic trajectories.

by Wiersema, Klaas and Farrell, Sean A. and Webb, Natalie A. and Servillat, Mathieu and Maccarone, Thomas J. and Barret, Didier and Godet, Olivier
5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJL on 20th May 2010, accepted for publication 20th July 2010

In this Letter we report a spectroscopic confirmation of the association of HLX-1, the brightest ultra-luminous X-ray source, with the galaxy ESO 243-49. At the host galaxy distance of 95 Mpc, the maximum observed 0.2 – 10 keV luminosity is 1.2E42 erg/s. This luminosity is ~400 times above the Eddington limit for a 20 Msun black hole, and has been interpreted as implying an accreting intermediate mass black hole with a mass in excess of 500 Msun (assuming the luminosity is a factor of 10 above the Eddington value). However, a number of other ultra-luminous X-ray sources have been later identified as background active galaxies or foreground sources. It has recently been claimed that HLX-1 could be a quiescent neutron star X-ray binary at a Galactic distance of only 2.5 kpc, so a definitive association with the host galaxy is crucial in order to confirm the nature of the object. Here we report the detection of the Halpha emission line for the recently identified optical counterpart at a redshift consistent with that of ESO 243-49. This finding definitively places HLX-1 inside ESO 243-49, confirming the extreme maximum luminosity and strengthening the case for it containing an accreting intermediate mass black hole of more than 500 Msun.

by Agarwal, Meghann and Milosavljevic, Milos
11 pages, 12 figures

Photometrically distinct nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are common in late-type-disk and spheroidal galaxies. The formation of NSCs is inevitable in the context of normal star formation in which a majority of stars form in clusters. A young, mass-losing cluster embedded in an isolated star-forming galaxy remains gravitationally bound over a period determined by its initial mass and the galactic tidal field. The cluster migrates radially toward the center of the galaxy and becomes integrated in the NSC if it reaches the center. The rate at which the NSC grows by accreting young clusters can be estimated from empirical cluster formation rates and dissolution times. We model cluster migration and dissolution and find that the NSCs in late-type disks and in spheroidals could have assembled from migrating clusters. The resulting stellar nucleus contains a small fraction of the stellar mass of the galaxy; this fraction is sensitive to the high-mass truncation of the initial cluster mass function (ICMF). The resulting NSC masses are consistent with the observed values, but generically, the final NSCs are surrounded by a spatially more extended excess over the inward-extrapolated exponential (or Sersic) law of the outer galaxy. We suggest that the excess can be related to the pseudobulge phenomenon in disks, though not all of the pseudobulge mass assembles this way. Comparison with observed NSC masses can be used to constrain the truncation mass scale of the ICMF and the fraction of clusters suffering prompt dissolution. We infer truncation mass scales of ~ 10^5 M_sun) without (with 90%) prompt dissolution.

by Vesperini, Enrico and Trenti, Michele
14 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Letters

Surface brightness profiles of globular clusters with shallow central cusps (Sigma ~ R^v with -0.3<~ v ~ -0.3 in the pre-core-collapse and core-collapse phases. Post-core-collapse clusters without an IMBH transition to steeper cusps, -0.7<~ v <~ -0.4, only if the primordial binary fraction is very small, f_{bin} -0.3 even when <~ -0.4. Overall our analysis shows that a shallow cusp is not an unequivocal signature of a central IMBH and casts serious doubts on the usefulness of measuring v in the context of the hunt for IMBHs in globular clusters.

by Maccarone, Thomas J. and Kundu, Arunav and Zepf, Stephen E. and Rhode, Katherine L.
6 pages, one 2-panel figure, 2 tables; accepted to MNRAS

We discuss CXOU~1229410+075744, a new black hole candidate in a globular cluster in the elliptical galaxy NGC~4472. By comparing two Chandra observations of the galaxy, we find a source that varies by at least a factor of 4, and has a peak luminosity of at least $latex 2\times10^{39}$ ergs/sec. As such, the source varies by significantly more than the Eddington luminosity for a single neutron star, and is a strong candidate for being a globular cluster black hole. The source’s X-ray spectrum also evolves in a manner consistent with what would be expected from a single accreting stellar mass black hole. We consider the properties of the host cluster of this source and the six other strong black hole X-ray binary candidates, and find that there is suggestive evidence that black hole X-ray binary formation is favored in bright and metal rich clusters, just as is the case for bright X-ray sources in general.

by Alexander, Tal
Invited overview lecture in “The Galactic Center, a window to the nuclear environment of disk galaxies” (Shanghai 19-23/10/2009). To appear in ASP Conf. Proc. Ser. “Galactic center workshop 2009″ ed. Mark Morris (12 pp 5 fig)

I discuss four key questions about Galactic Center dynamics, their implications for understanding both the environment of the Galactic MBH and galactic nuclei in general, and the progress made in addressing them. The questions are (1) Is the stellar system around the MBH relaxed? (2) Is there a “dark cusp” around the MBH? (3) What is the origin of the stellar disk(s)?, and (4) What is the origin of the S-stars?

by Noyola, Eva and Gebhardt, Karl and Kissler-Patig, Markus and Lutzgendorf, Nora and Jalali, Behrang and de Zeeuw, P. Tim and Baumgardt, Holger
5 pages, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

The Galactic globular cluster omega Centauri is a prime candidate for hosting an intermediate mass black hole. Recent measurements lead to contradictory conclusions on this issue. We use VLT-FLAMES to obtain new integrated spectra for the central region of omega Centauri. We combine these data with existing measurements of the radial velocity dispersion profile taking into account a new derived center from kinematics and two different centers from the literature. The data support previous measurements performed for a smaller field of view and show a discrepancy with the results from a large proper motion data set. We see a rise in the radial velocity dispersion in the central region to 22.8+-1.2 km/s, which provides a strong sign for a central black hole. Isotropic dynamical models for omega Centauri imply black hole masses ranging from 3.0 to 5.2×10^4 solar masses depending on the center. The best-fitted mass is 4.7+-1.0×10^4 solar masses.

by Gualandris, Alessia and Gillessen, Stefan and Merritt, David
8 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We study the short-term effects of an intermediate mass black hole (IBH) on the orbit of star S2 (S02), the shortest period star known to orbit the supermassive black hole (SBH) in the centre of the Milky Way. Near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations allow an accurate determination of the orbit of the star. Given S2’s short orbital period and large eccentricity, general relativity (GR) needs to be taken into account, and its effects are potentially measurable with current technology. We show that perturbations due to an IBH in orbit around the SBH can produce a shift in the apoapsis of S2 that is as large or even larger than the GR shift. An IBH will also induce changes in the plane of S2’s orbit at a level as large as one degree per period. We apply observational orbital fitting techniques to simulations of the S-cluster in the presence of an IBH and find that an IBH more massive than about 1000 solar masses at the distance of the S-stars will be detectable at the next periapse passage of S2, which will occur in 2018.

by Vesperini, Enrico and McMillan, Stephen L. W. and D’Ercole, Annibale and D’Antona, Francesca
4 pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Letters

Spectroscopic and photometric observations show that many globular clusters host multiple stellar populations, challenging the common paradigm that globular clusters are “simple stellar populations” composed of stars of uniform age and chemical composition. The chemical abundances of second-generation (SG) stars constrain the sources of gas out of which these stars must have formed, indicating that the gas must contain matter processed through the high-temperature CNO cycle. First-generation massive Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars have been proposed as the source of this gas. In a previous study, by means of hydrodynamical and N-body simulations, we have shown that the AGB ejecta collect in a cooling flow in the cluster core, where the gas reaches high densities, ultimately forming a centrally concentrated subsystem of SG stars. In this Letter we show that the high gas density can also lead to significant accretion onto a pre-existing seed black hole. We show that gas accretion can increase the black hole mass by up to a factor of 100. The details of the gas dynamics are important in determining the actual black hole growth. Assuming a near-universal seed black hole mass and small cluster-to-cluster variations in the duration of the SG formation phase, the outcome of our scenario is one in which the present intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) mass may have only a weak dependence on the current cluster properties. The scenario presented provides a natural mechanism for the formation of an IMBH at the cluster center during the SG star-formation phase.

by Webb, N. A. and Barret, D. and Godet, O. and Servillat, M. and Farrell, S. A. and Oates, S. R.
10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL on 12/02/2010

The brightest Ultra-Luminous X-ray source HLX-1 in the galaxy ESO 243-49 provides strong evidence for the existence of intermediate mass black holes. As the luminosity and thus the mass estimate depend on the association of HLX-1 with ESO 243-49, it is essential to confirm its affiliation. This requires follow-up investigations at wavelengths other than X-rays, which in-turn needs an improved source position. To further reinforce the intermediate mass black hole identification, it is necessary to determine HLX-1’s environment to establish whether it could potentially form and nourish a black hole at the luminosities observed. Using the High Resolution Camera onboard Chandra, we determine a source position of RA=01h10m28.3s and Dec=-46d04′22.3″. A conservative 95% error of 0.3″ was found following a boresight correction by cross-matching the positions of 3 X-ray sources in the field with the 2MASS catalog. Combining all Swift UV/Optical Telescope uvw2 images, we failed to detect a UV source at the Chandra position down to a 3sigma limiting magnitude of 20.25 mag. However, there is evidence that the UV emission is elongated in the direction of HLX-1. This is supported by archival data from GALEX and suggests that the far-UV emission is stronger than the near-UV. This could imply that HLX-1 may be situated near the edge of a star forming region. Using the latest X-ray observations we deduce the mass accretion rate of a 500 Msun black hole with the observed luminosity and show that this is compatible with such an environment.

by Farrell, S. A. and Servillat, M. and Oates, S. R. and Heywood, I. and Godet, O. and Webb, N. A. and Barret, D.
4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted 11th of Feb 2010. Contributed talk to appear in Proceedings of “X-ray Astronomy 2009: Present Status, Multi-Wavelength Approach and Future Perspectives”, Bologna, Italy, September 7-11, 2009, AIP, eds. A. Comastri, M. Cappi, and L. Angelini

The brightest Ultra-Luminous X-ray source HLX-1 in the galaxy ESO 243-49 currently provides strong evidence for the existence of intermediate mass black holes. Here we present the latest multi-wavelength results on this intriguing source in X-ray, UV and radio bands. We have refined the X-ray position to sub-arcsecond accuracy. We also report the detection of UV emission that could indicate ongoing star formation in the region around HLX-1. The lack of detectable radio emission at the X-ray position strengthens the argument against a background AGN.

by Zwart, Simon Portegies and McMillan, Steve and Gieles, Mark
Only 88 pages. To be published in ARAA. Final version to be submitted on Friday 12 February

Young massive clusters are dense aggregates of young stars that form the fundamental building blocks of galaxies. Several examples exist in the Milky Way Galaxy and the Local Group, but they are particularly abundant in starburst and interacting galaxies. The few young massive clusters that are close enough to resolve are of prime interest for studying the stellar mass function and the ecological interplay between stellar evolution and stellar dynamics. The distant unresolved clusters may be effectively used to study the star-cluster mass function, and they provide excellent constraints on the formation mechanisms of young cluster populations. Young massive clusters are expected to be the nurseries for many unusual objects, including a wide range of exotic stars and binaries. So far only a few such objects have been found in young massive clusters, although their older cousins, the globular clusters, are unusually rich in stellar exotica. In this review we focus on star clusters younger than $latex \sim100$ Myr, more than a few current crossing times old, and more massive than $latex \sim10^4$ \Msun, irrespective of cluster size or environment. We describe the global properties of the currently known young massive star clusters in the Local Group and beyond, and discuss the state of the art in observations and dynamical modeling of these systems. In order to make this review readable by observers, theorists, and computational astrophysicists, we also review the cross-disciplinary terminology.

by Sopuerta, Carlos F. and Yunes, Nicolas
3 pages. To appear in Proceedings of the Twelfth Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, edited by Thibault Damour, Robert T Jantzen and Remo Ruffini, World Scientific, Singapore, 2010

The inspiral of stellar compact objects into massive black holes, usually known as extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), is one of the most important sources of gravitational-waves for the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs are also of interest to advance ground-based gravitational-wave observatories. We discuss here how modifications to the gravitational interaction can affect the signals emitted by these systems and their detectability by LISA. We concentrate in particular on Chern-Simons modified gravity, a theory that emerges in different quantum gravitational approaches.

by Gnedin, Oleg Y. and Maccarone, Thomas J. and Psaltis, Dimitrios and Zepf, Stephen E.

Large extra dimensions have been proposed as a possible solution to the hierarchy problem in physics. One of the suggested models, the RS2 braneworld model, makes a prediction that black holes evaporate by Hawking radiation on a short timescale that depends on the black hole mass and on the asymptotic radius of curvature of the extra dimensions. Thus the size of the extra dimensions can be constrained by astrophysical observations. Here we point out that the black hole, recently discovered in a globular cluster in galaxy NGC 4472, places the strongest constraint on the maximum size of the extra dimensions, L < 0.003 mm. This black hole has the virtues of old age and relatively small mass. The derived upper limit is within an order of magnitude of the absolute limit afforded by astrophysical observations of black holes.

by Forbes, Duncan A. and Kroupa, Pavel and Metz, Manuel and Spitler, Lee
3 pages, published in Mercury vol. 38, No. 2, page 24. See http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/dforbes/mw.pdf for a full colour version with figures

Our Milky Way galaxy is host to a number of companions. These companions are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way and are stellar systems in their own right. They include a population of some 30 dwarf satellite galaxies (DSGs) and about 150 globular clusters (GCs). Here we discuss the relationship between GCs and DSGs using an interactive 3D model of the Milky Way.

by Ibata, R. and Bellazzini, M. and Chapman, S. C. and Dalessandro, E. and Ferraro, F. R. and Irwin, M. and Lanzoni, B. and Lewis, G. F. and Mackey, A. D. and Miocchi, P. and Varghese, A.
Accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal (Letters). Latex. 5 pages, 4 color figures, 2 with reduced resolution, one in greyscale. A full-resolution color version of the paper can be retrieved from http://www.bo.astro.it/SGR/Sgr_BH.pdf

We report the detection of a stellar density cusp and a velocity dispersion increase in the center of the globular cluster M54, located at the center of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr). The central line of sight velocity dispersion is 20.2 +/- 0.7 km/s, decreasing to 16.4 +/- 0.4 km/s at 2.5″ (0.3 pc). Modeling the kinematics and surface density profiles as the sum of a King model and a point-mass yields a black hole (BH) mass of ~ 9400 M_sun. However, the observations can alternatively be explained if the cusp stars possess moderate radial anisotropy. A Jeans analysis of the Sgr nucleus reveals a strong tangential anisotropy, probably a relic from the formation of the system.

by Yagi, Kent and Tanaka, Takahiro
37 pages, 16 figures

We calculate how strong one can put constraints on the alternative theories of gravities such as Brans-Dicke and massive graviton theories with LISA. We consider the inspiral gravitational waves from NS/IMBH binaries in Brans-Dicke theory and SMBH/BH binaries in massive graviton theories. We use the 2PN waveforms including spins. We also take both precession and small eccentricity of the orbit into account. We neglect the spin of one of the binary object so that we can apply the so-called \textit{simple precession}. We perform the Monte Carlo simulations of $latex 10^4$ binaries, whose parameters include the Brans-Dicke parameter $latex \omega_{\mathrm{BD}}$ and the graviton Compton length $latex \lambda_g$. We find that including both the spin-spin coupling $latex \sigma$ and the small eccentricity into the binary parameters reduces the determination accuracy by an order of magnitude for the Brans-Dicke case, whilst it has less influence on massive graviton theories. On the other hand, including precession enhances the constraint on $latex \omega_{\mathrm{BD}}$ only 20% but it increases the constraint on $latex \lambda_g$ by several factors. For $latex (1.4+1000)M_{\odot}$ NS/BH binaries of SNR=10, one can put $latex \omega_{\mathrm{BD}}>7040$, whilst for $latex (10^7+10^6)M_{\odot}$ BH/BH binaries at 3Gpc, one can put $latex \lambda_g>4.24\times10^{21}$cm, on average. This is four orders of magnitude stronger than the one obtained from the solar system experiment. From these results, it is understood that the effects of precession and eccentricity cannot be neglected in the parameter estimation analysis.

by Sopuerta, Carlos F. and Yunes, Nicolas
24 pages, 8 figures, Revtex 4

[abridged] Chern-Simons (CS) modified gravity is a 4D effective theory that descends both from string theory and loop quantum gravity, and that corrects the Einstein-Hilbert action by adding the product of a scalar field and the parity-violating, Pontryagin density. In this theory, the gravitational field of spinning black holes is described by a modified Kerr geometry whose multipole moments deviate from the Kerr ones only at the fourth multipole, l = 4. We investigate possible signatures of this theory in the gravitational wave emission produced in the inspiral of stellar compact objects into massive black holes, both for intermediate- and extreme-mass ratios. We use the semi-relativistic approximation, where the trajectories are geodesics of the massive black hole geometry and the gravitational waveforms are obtained from a multipolar decomposition of the radiative field. The main CS corrections to the waveforms arise from modifications to the geodesic trajectories, due to changes to the massive black hole geometry, and manifest themselves as an accumulating dephasing relative to the general relativistic case. We also explore the propagation and the stress-energy tensor of gravitational waves in this theory. We find that, although this tensor has the same form as in General Relativity, the energy and angular momentum balance laws are indeed modified through the stress-energy tensor of the CS scalar field. These balance laws could be used to describe the inspiral through adiabatic changes in the orbital parameters, which in turn would enhance the dephasing effect. Gravitational-wave observations of intermediate- or extreme-mass ratio inspirals with advanced ground detectors or with LISA could use such dephasing to test the dynamical theory to unprecedented levels.

by Gezari, Suvi and Strubbe, Linda and Bloom, Joshua S. and Grindlay, J. E. and Soderberg, Alicia and Elvis, Martin and Coppi, Paolo and Lawrence, Andrew and Ivezic, Zeljko and Merritt, David and Komossa, Stefanie and Halpern, Jules and Eracleous, Michael
8 pages, 2 figures, White Paper submitted to the 2010 Decadal Survey Galaxies Across Cosmic Time Science Frontiers Panel

Tidal disruption events provide a unique probe of quiescent black holes in the nuclei of distant galaxies. The next generation of synoptic surveys will yield a large sample of flares from the tidal disruption of stars by massive black holes that will give insights to four key science questions: 1) What is the assembly history of massive black holes in the universe? 2) Is there a population of intermediate mass black holes that are the primordial seeds of supermassive black holes? 3) How can we increase our understanding of the physics of accretion onto black holes? 4) Can we localize sources of gravitational waves from the detection of tidal disruption events around massive black holes and recoiling binary black hole mergers?

by Miller, M. Coleman and Alexander, Tal and Amaro-Seoane, Pau and Barth, Aaron J. and Cutler, Curt and Gair, Jonathan R. and Hopman, Clovis and Merritt, David and Phinney, E. Sterl and Richstone, Douglas O.
8 pages, Science white paper for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Electromagnetic observations over the last 15 years have yielded a growing appreciation for the importance of supermassive black holes (SMBH) to the evolution of galaxies, and for the intricacies of dynamical interactions in our own Galactic center. Here we show that future low-frequency gravitational wave observations, alone or in combination with electromagnetic data, will open up unique windows to these processes. In particular, gravitational wave detections in the 10^{-5}-10^{-1} Hz range will yield SMBH masses and spins to unprecedented precision and will provide clues to the properties of the otherwise undetectable stellar remnants expected to populate the centers of galaxies. Such observations are therefore keys to understanding the interplay between SMBHs and their environments.

by Prince, T. A. and Team, for the LISA International Science
Science White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

This Astro2010 science white paper provides an overview of the opportunities in low-frequency gravitational-wave astronomy, a new field that is poised to make significant advances. While discussing the broad context of gravitational-wave astronomy, this paper concentrates on the low-frequency region (10^(-5) to 1 Hz), a frequency range abundantly populated in strong sources of gravitational waves including massive black hole mergers, ultra-compact stellar-mass galactic binaries, and capture of compact objects by massive black holes in the nuclei of galaxies.