Black hole dynamics in star clusters: Eccentric mergers and star-black hole binaries

Abstract: Star clusters are dense stellar systems, where the gravitational interactions between stars and black holes (BH) play a crucial role in shaping their structure and evolution. These interactions can produce exotic systems, including merging binary black holes (BBH) and BHs with stellar companions (hereafter, star-BH binaries). The goal of this Thesis is to understand the outcome of few-body interactions in star clusters, specifically the ones leading to BBH mergers with detectable eccentricity and dormant (non-accreting) star-BH binaries. We discuss the formation of these sources, which is key to understand current and future observations of 1) GWs by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra interferometers, and 2) dormant star-BHs by Gaia and other surveys.

Tribunal:

President: Dr. Simon Portegies Zwart

Secretary: Dr. Nadejda Blagorodnova Mujortova

Vocal: Dr. Fabio Antonini

Suplents:

Dr. Giuliano Iorio

Dr. Andrew Lundgren

Director: Dr. Mark Gieles

Tutor: Dr. Alberto Manrique Oliva