NO EVIDENCE FOR INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS: STRONG CONSTRAINTS FROM THE JVLA
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Highfield SO17 IBJ (United Kingdom)
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845 (Australia)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States)
With a goal of searching for accreting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), we report the results of ultra-deep Jansky Very Large Array radio continuum observations of the cores of three Galactic globular clusters: M15, M19, and M22. We reach rms noise levels of 1.5-2.1 {mu}Jy beam{sup -1} at an average frequency of 6 GHz. No sources are observed at the center of any of the clusters. For a conservative set of assumptions about the properties of the accretion, we set 3{sigma} upper limits on IMBHs from 360 to 980 M{sub Sun }. These limits are among the most stringent obtained for any globular cluster. They add to a growing body of work that suggests either (1) IMBHs {approx}> 1000 M{sub Sun} are rare in globular clusters or (2) when present, IMBHs accrete in an extraordinarily inefficient manner.
- OSTI ID:
- 22047848
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 750, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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