Abstract
Recent theoretical work has solidified the viability of the collisional runaway scenario in young dense star clusters for the formation of very massive stars (VMSs), which may be precursors to intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We present first results from a numerical study of the collisional runaway process in dense star clusters containing primordial binaries. Stellar collisions during binary scattering encounters provide an alternate channel for runaway growth, somewhat independent of direct collisions between single stars. We find that clusters with binary fractions ≳10% yield two VMSs via collisional runaways, presenting the exotic possibility of forming IMBH-IMBH binaries in star clusters. We discuss the implications for gravitational wave observations and the impact on cluster structure.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | L39-L42 |
| Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
| Volume | 640 |
| Issue number | 1 II |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 20 2006 |
Funding
We thank Marc Freitag, Shane Larson, and Cole Miller for many fruitful discussions and an anonymous referee for comments that improved the Letter. Some of the simulations were performed on the Tungsten cluster at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. M. A. G. thanks Sabancı University for their hospitality during the finalization of this Letter. This work was supported by NASA grant NNG04G176G.
Keywords
- Black hole physics
- Globular clusters: general
- Gravitational waves
- Methods: n-body simulations
- Stellar dynamics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science