The Role of Three-Body Encounters in IMBH Formation
Kayhan Gultekin
Evidence has been mounting for the existence of black holes with
masses from 100 to 10000 M_sun associated with stellar clusters. Such
intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) will encounter other black holes
in the dense cores of these clusters. The binaries produced in these
encounters will encounter other objects as well thus changing the
orbital characteristics of the binaries. These binaries and their
subsequent mergers due to gravitational radiation are important
sources of gravitational waves. We will present the results of
numerical simulations of sequences of high mass ratio three-body
encounters, which will help (1) clarify the nature of the interactions
of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters, (2) constrain
formation models of IMBHs, and (3) help determine what types of
detectable gravitational wave signatures are likely.