| Dynamics of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Star Clusters (2004) | |||||||||
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| We have followed the evolution of multi-mass star clusters containing massive central black holes by N-body simulations on the GRAPE6 computers of Tokyo University. We find a strong cluster expansion and significant structural changes of the clusters. Star clusters with IMBHs have power-law density profiles $rho ~ r^{-alpha}$ with slopes $alpha=1.55$ inside the influence sphere of the central black hole. This leads to a constant density profile of bright stars in projection, which rules out the presence of intermediate mass black holes in core collapse clusters. If the star clusters are surrounded by a tidal field, a central IMBH speeds up the destruction of the cluster until a remnant of a few hundred stars remains, which stays bound to the IMBH for a long time. We also discuss the efficiency of different detection mechanisms for finding IMBHs in star clusters.. Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the "The Formation and Evolution of Massive Young Clusters" conference, Cancun, Mexico, 17 - 21 November, 2003 | |||||||||
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