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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

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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 

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