Understanding the central kinematics of massive star clusters: Evidence for massive black holes?

The aim of the project is the study of the central kinematics of globular clusters, massive star clusters orbiting in the gravitational potentials of all major galaxies.

A range of exotic objects, such as stellar-mass black holes, pulsars, or cataclysmic variables, are already known to reside around the cluster centres.

Here, we will investigate if even more elusive objects, namely intermediate-mass black holes, are also to be found in globular clusters.

Weighing thousands of solar masses, intermediate-mass black holes would represent the missing link in explaining the formation of the supermassive black holes that are routinely found in the centres of galaxies.

The most widely used technique to locate and characterize any massive black hole is via stellar kinematics, as the stars orbiting in its vicinity are accelerated by the gravitational field of the black hole. In this project, we will analyse existing data from the MUSE integral field spectrograph.

Thanks to a laser-assisted adaptive optics system, MUSE is able to study the stellar kinematics around the centres of globular clusters at unprecedented spatial resolution.

The data will be combined with state-of-the-art dynamical models, that will constrain the masses of any potential intermediate-mass black holes residing in the clusters.

While we will begin our analyses using Jeans models, it is also planned to explore the use of Schwarzschild models for this task during the later stages of the project.