Intermediate-mass black hole induced quenching of mass segregation in star clusters

Abstract

In many theoretical scenarios it is expected that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs, with masses M ∼ 102-104 M ⊙) reside at the centers of some globular clusters. However, observational evidence for their existence is limited. Several previous numerical investigations have focused on the impact of an IMBH on the cluster dynamics or brightness profile. Here we instead present results from a large set of direct N-body simulations including single and binary stars. These show that there is a potentially more detectable IMBH signature, namely on the variation of the average stellar mass between the center and the half-light radius. We find that the existence of an IMBH quenches mass segregati..