The Surface Density Profile of NGC 6388: A Good Candidate for Harboring an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

We have used a combination of HST high-resolution and ground-based wide-field observations of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6388 to derive its center of gravity, projected density profile, and central surface brightness profile. While the overall projected profiles are well fit by a King model w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Astrophysical journal Vol. 668; no. 2; pp. L139 - L142
Main Authors Lanzoni, B, Dalessandro, E, Ferraro, F. R, Miocchi, P, Valenti, E, Rood, R. T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, IL IOP Publishing 20.10.2007
University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Astronomy
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
black hole physics
Black holes
stars: evolution
Cosmology
Stellar evolution
Globular clusters
Star clusters
globular clusters: individual (NGC 6388)
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Summary:We have used a combination of HST high-resolution and ground-based wide-field observations of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6388 to derive its center of gravity, projected density profile, and central surface brightness profile. While the overall projected profiles are well fit by a King model with an intermediate concentration (c= 1.8) and a sizable core radius (r sub(c) = 7.2"), a significant power-law (with slope alpha = -0.2) deviation from flat-core behavior has been detected within the inner 1". These properties suggest the presence of a central intermediate-mass black hole. The observed profiles are well reproduced by a multimass isotropic, spherical model, including a black hole with a mass of similar to 5.7 x 10 super(3) M [unk].
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:1538-4357
0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1086/522927