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Searching for intermediate mass black holes: understanding the data first

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2016

Paolo Bianchini ,
Mark Norris ,
Glenn van de Ven  and
Eva Schinnerer
Paolo Bianchini
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany email: bianchini@mpia.de
Mark Norris
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany email: bianchini@mpia.de
Glenn van de Ven
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany email: bianchini@mpia.de
Eva Schinnerer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany email: bianchini@mpia.de
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Abstract

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The detection of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters has been hotly debated, with different observational methods delivering different outcomes for the same object. In order to understand these discrepancies, we construct detailed mock integral field spectroscopy (IFU) observations of globular clusters, starting from realistic Monte Carlo cluster simulations. The output is a data cube of spectra in a given field-of-view that can be analyzed in the same manner as real observations and compared to other (resolved) kinematic measurement methods. We show that the main discrepancies arise because the luminosity-weighted IFU observations can be strongly biased by the presence of a few bright stars that introduce a scatter in velocity dispersion measurements of several km s−1. We show that this intrinsic scatter can prevent a sound assessment of the central kinematics, and therefore should be fully taken into account to correctly interpret the signature of an IMBH.

Keywords

black hole physicsglobular clusters: generalstars: kinematicsinstrumentation: spectrographs

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