Production of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters

By M. Miller, D. Hamilton. 2001

387 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The discovery of numerous non-nuclear X-ray point sources with luminosities L>1039 erg s−1 in several starburst galaxies has stimulated speculation about their nature and origin. The strong variability seen in several sources points to massive black holes as the central engines. If the flux is isotropic, the luminosities range up to ≈1041 erg s−1, implying masses of M≳103 M⊙ if the luminosity is sub-Eddington. Here we explore a model for these sources. We suggest that in some tens of per cent of globular clusters a very massive black hole, M≳50 M⊙, is formed. This black hole sinks in ≲106 yr to the centre of the cluster, where in the ∼1010 yr lifetime of the cluster it accretes ∼103 M⊙, primarily in the form of lighter black holes. Unlike less-massive black holes in binaries, which are flung from clusters by recoil before they can merge gravitationally, a ≳50 M⊙ black hole has enough inertia that it remains bound to the cluster. We suggest that ∼103 M⊙ black holes may be common in the centres of dense globular clusters, and may therefore exist in some tens of per cent of current globulars. If the cluster later merges with its host galaxy, accretion from young star clusters in molecular clouds by the black hole can generate luminosity consistent with that observed. We also consider the detectability of massive black holes in globular clusters with gravitational wave detectors, and speculate on future observations that may test our predictions.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a15878629f325168d666a641bacd53040c37c707

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Michela Mapelli
2. F. Antonini
3. F. Rasio
4. Mario Spera
5. N. Giacobbo
6. M. Volonteri
7. D. Holz
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In Instrumentation

1. Michela Mapelli
2. F. Rasio
3. F. Antonini
4. T. Alexander
5. M. Volonteri
6. H. Baumgardt
7. M. Gieles
8. Mario Spera

Citations in the corpus

• X-ray Source Populations in Galaxies (2003, background): “…because of the crowded fields, the absence of an optical counterpart is a solid result and suggests that the ULXs may have received kicks at their formation (Zezas & Fabbiano 2002), which may be unlikely in the case of a massive IMBH forming in a dense stallar cluster (e.g. Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• The Low End of the Supermassive Black Hole Mass Function: Constraining the Mass of a Nuclear Black Hole in NGC 205 via Stellar Kinematics (2005, background): “…to galactic centers of seed black holes that are produced, for instance, from the collapse of Population III stars or from dynamical processes in ordinary star clusters (Gürkan et al. 2004; Portegies Zwart et al. 2004; Islam et al. 2003; Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2002; Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• Binary Mergers and Growth of Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters (2005, methodology): “Most analytic studies and numerical simulations so far assumed that all BHswere 10M (see, e.g., Miller & Hamilton 2002b; Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2000) or included just one large BH (GMH04).”
• FORMATION OF THE FIRST NUCLEAR CLUSTERS AND MASSIVE BLACK HOLES AT HIGH REDSHIFT (2008, background): “…that an “intermediate-mass” BH could in principle form as a result of dynamical interactions in dense stellar systems is a long standing idea (Begelman and Rees 1978; Freitag et al. 2006b,a, Ebisuzaki et al. 2001; Portegies Zwart and McMillan 2002; Miller & Hamilton 2002, Gurkan et al. 2004).”
• Black hole growth through hierarchical black hole mergers in dense star clusters: implications for gravitational wave detections (2018, methodology): “…whether intermediate mass BHs (IMBHs; generally defined as BHs with mass in the range ∼ 100 − 105M⊙) can form in globular clusters via hierarchical mergers of stellar seed BHs (e.g., Miller & Hamilton 2002c; Gültekin et al. 2004; Giersz et al. 2015; Kovetz et al. 2018; Christian et al. 2018).”
• Massive Black Holes in Star Clusters. II. Realistic Cluster Models (2004, background): “In less concentrated clusters, this process is also possible but may take up to a Hubble time (Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• Investigating stellar‐mass black hole kicks (2012, background): “The question whether black holes might be retained in a globular cluster has been largely discussed in the literature (e.g., Kulkarni et al. 1993, Sigurdsson & Hernquist 1993, Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2000, Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• The Ultraluminous X-Ray Source Population from the Chandra Archive of Galaxies (2004, background): “…in dense young star clusters through runaway merging of massive stars (Ebisuzaki et al. 2001; Portegies Zwart & McMillian 2002; Portegies Zwart et al. 2004) or through the gradual accural of compact stellar remnants onto a seed black hole over the lifetime of the cluster (Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• Formation of Massive Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters. I. Mass Segregation and Core Collapse (2003, background): “These more massive BH could then grow by repeatedly forming binaries (through exchange interactions ) with other BH and merging with their companions (Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• Intermediate - mass black holes (2003, background): “In older clusters, Miller & Hamilton (2002a) show that a black hole with initial mass M ∼ 50M⊙ can stay and grow in a globular cluster, and that binary-binary interactions can produce mergers without substantial dynamical kicks.”
• Fluorescent iron lines as a probe of astrophysical black hole systems (2002, neutral): “(See the discussion in [13], for example.”
• A Catalog of Candidate Intermediate-Luminosity X-Ray Objects (2002, neutral): “The merging of smaller mass black holes has been proposed as a formation mechanism for IMBHs (e.g. Taniguchi et al. 2000, Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
• Evolutionary roads leading to low effective spins, high black hole masses, and O1/O2 rates for LIGO/Virgo binary black holes (2017, background): “…an evolutionary channel alternative to isolated binary evolution that could operate in globular clusters, nuclear clusters or open, young clusters (Miller & Hamilton 2002a,b; Portegies Zwart et al. 2004; Gültekin et al. 2004, 2006; O’Leary et al. 2007; Sadowski et al. 2008; Downing et al. 2010;…”
• Formation of supermassive black holes (2010, background): “…in principle form as a result of dynamical interactions in dense stellar systems is a long standing idea (Begelman and Rees, 1978; Ebisuzaki et al, 2001; Miller and Hamilton, 2002; Portegies Zwart and McMillan, 2002; Portegies Zwart et al, 2004; Freitag et al, 2006b,a; Gürkan et al, 2004, 2006).”
• The Runaway Growth of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters (2002, background): “Miller & Hamilton (2002) have studied the possibility that an IMBH may form slowly (on a Hubble timescale) by occasionally encountering and devouring other cluster stars.”
• Massive black hole binaries from runaway collisions: the impact of metallicity (2016, background): “…direct collapse of very massive (> 250 M⊙) population III stars (Madau & Rees 2001; Schneider et al. 2002; Heger et al. 2003), and the repeated mergers of stellar-mass BHs with stars and other BHs, triggered by dynamical interactions in star clusters (Miller & Hamilton 2002; Giersz et al. 2015).”