Radio emission as a test of the existence of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies

2004/03/22 by Thomas J. Maccarone · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07859.x

published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 351 (2004) 1049 · 6 pages, no figures, accepted to MNRAS

arxiv created 2004/03/22 · openalex publication_date 2004/06/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

We take the established relation between black hole mass, X-ray luminosity and radio luminosity and show that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), such as those predicted to exist at the centres of globular clusters (GCs), will be easily identifiable objects in deep radio observations. We show that the radio observations will be far more sensitive than any possible X-ray observations. We also discuss the likely optical photometric and spectroscopic appearance of such systems in the event that radio detections are made.

Cited by

• Radio Continuum Observations of the Candidate Supermassive Black Hole in the Dwarf Elliptical VCC 128
• The MAVERIC Survey: Still No Evidence for Accreting Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters
• Relativistic Binaries in Globular Clusters