paper

Upper limits on the central black hole masses of 47Tuc and NGC6397

arXiv:astro-ph/0601450 · doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2006.00153.x

Abstract

We present upper-limits on the masses of the putative central intermediate-mass black holes in two nearby Galactic globular clusters: 47Tuc (NGC104), the second brightest Galactic globular cluster, and NGC6397, a core-collapse globular cluster and, with a distance of 2.7 kpc, quite possibly the nearest globular cluster, using a technique suggested by T. Maccarone. These mass estimates have been derived from 3sigma upper limits on the radio continuum flux at 1.4 GHz, assuming that the putative central black hole accretes the surrounding matter at a rate between 0.1% and 1% of the Bondi accretion rate. For 47Tuc, we find a 3sigma upper limit of 2060 - 670 solar masses, depending on the actual accretion rate of the black hole and the distance to 47Tuc. For NGC6397, which is closer to us, we derive a 3sigma upper limit of 1290 - 390 solar masses. While estimating mass upper-limits based on radio continuum observations requires making assumptions about the gas density and the accretion rate of the black hole, their derivation does not require complex and time consuming dynamical modeling. Thus, this method offers an independent way of estimating black hole masses in nearby globular clusters. If, generally, central black holes in stellar systems accrete matter faster than 0.1% of the Bondi accretion rate, then these results indicate the absence of black holes in these globular clusters with masses as predicted by the extrapolated M-sigma relation.

4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication by MNRAS

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