http://arxiv.org/abs/1802.05284
There has been increasing theoretical and observational speculation that certain globular clusters (GCs) could contain a sizeable population of stellar mass black holes (BHs). In this paper, we shortlist at least 29 Galactic GCs that could be hosting a subsystem of BHs (BHS). In a companion paper, we analysed results from a wide array of GC models (simulated with the MOCCA code for cluster simulations) that retained few tens to several hundreds of BHs at 12 Gyr and showed that the properties of the BHS in those GCs correlate with the GC’s observable properties. Building on those results, we use available observational properties of 140 Galactic GCs to identify 29 GCs that could potentially be harbouring up to few hundreds of BHs. Utilizing observational properties and theoretical scaling relations, we estimate the density, size and mass of the BHS in these GCs. We also provide numbers for the total BH population and the number of BHs in binary systems that are contained within these GCs. Additionally, we mention other Galactic GCs that could also contain significant number of single BHs or BHs in binary systems.
A. Askar, M. Sedda and M. Giersz
Fri, 16 Feb 18
31/42
Comments: 12 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, submitted to MNRAS