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Fulya Kıroğlu

Publications and source records attributed to Fulya Kıroğlu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Using Machine Learning to Model Stellar Collisions in our Galactic Center

Direct collisions in the inner pc of the Galactic center can alter the orbits and properties of stars. The outcome of a collision depends on a number of parameters, including the masses and ages of the stars, the impact parameter, and the initial relative velocity. We utilize the newly developed $\verb|collAIder|$, a machine learning tool developed to predict the outcomes of stellar collisions, to bridge 3D hydrodynamic simulations of stellar collisions with a dynamical model of the Galactic center. Our results show a substantial population of stripped stars, $\sim$$10\%$ of the initial stellar population, produced by mass loss during high-speed collisions. Stellar mergers are less frequent, with about $5\%$ of the stars experiencing a collision-induced merger. We also find that high-speed, nearly head-on collisions can completely disrupt the stars. These destructive collisions are usually preceded by 10 or more collisions, which gradually reduce the mass of the star before it is ultimately destroyed. We estimate that mass loss during stellar collisions injects roughly $(2.5-8)\times 10^5$ M$_\odot$ of gas into the surrounding environment. Most of this gas is injected into the inner $0.1$ pc and about $90\%$ is retained within the cluster and may be accreted onto the supermassive black hole.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2026

Explaining the X-ray Precursor, Ultra-long Prompt Emission, and Week-long Decay of GRB250702B with a Jetted Micro-TDE

The longest detected gamma-ray burst, GRB250702B, exhibited seven hours of prompt $γ$-ray emission, preceded by a soft X-ray precursor ($\sim1$ day earlier) and followed by a weeks-long fading X-ray tail. Lacking an established progenitor for all three phases, we propose that this ultra-long GRB (ULGRB) is powered by a jetted micro-tidal disruption event (micro-TDE), in which a spinning stellar-mass black hole (BH) disrupts a Sun-like star and launches a relativistic jet via the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. Micro-TDE debris disks have hours-to-days viscous timescales, naturally explaining ULGRB durations. Using 3D hydrodynamic AREPO simulations of a $1\,M_\odot$ star disrupted by a $10\,M_\odot$ BH, we show that within $\sim1$ day the debris forms a quasi-steady envelope with a low-density polar funnel ($ρ\propto r^{-2}$, half-opening angle $\approx15^\circ$). Applying an analytic jet-stability framework to these profiles, we find that the $r^{-2}$ funnel keeps the jet below the kink-instability threshold, enabling stable propagation and breakout for jet powers, $L_{\rm jet}\gtrsim10^{47}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We attribute the X-ray precursor to pre-disk stream-fed accretion; the prompt GRB to a tightly beamed jet ($θ_{\rm b}\lesssim1^\circ$, $L_{γ,\rm iso}\sim10^{51}$ erg s$^{-1}$) escaping the funnel, launched by a rapidly spinning BH ($a_\bullet\sim0.9$); and the weeks-long X-ray decline to disk-wind mass loss ($L_{\rm jet}\propto t^{-2}$) combined with jet widening ($θ_{\rm b}\propto t$, initially steepening the decay to $L_{\rm X,iso}\propto L_{\rm jet}/θ_{\rm b}^{2}\propto t^{-4}$). Our model reproduces the multi-phase evolution of GRB250702B and establishes jetted micro-TDEs as a physically motivated ULGRB engine.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Machine Learning Methods for Stellar Collisions. I. Predicting Outcomes of SPH Simulations

Stellar collisions can occur frequently in dense cluster environments, and play a crucial role in producing exotic phenomena from blue stragglers in globular clusters to high-energy transients in galactic nuclei. Successive collisions and mergers of massive stars could also lead to the formation of massive black holes, serving as seeds for supermassive black hole in the early universe. While analytic fitting formulae exist for predicting collision outcomes, they do not generalize across different energy scales or stellar evolutionary phases. Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations are often used to compute the outcomes of stellar collisions, but, even at low resolution, their computational cost makes running on-the-fly calculations during an $N$-body simulation quite challenging. Here we present a new grid of $27,720$ SPH calculations of main-sequence star collisions, spanning a wide range of masses, ages, relative velocities, and impact parameters. Using this grid, we train machine learning models to predict both collision outcomes (merger vs disruption, or flyby) and final remnant masses. We compare the performance of nearest neighbors, support vector machines, and neural networks, achieving classification balanced accuracy of $98.4\%$, and regression relative errors as low as $0.11\%$ and $0.15\%$ for the final stars $1$ and $2$, respectively. We make our trained models publicly available as part of the package collAIder, enabling rapid predictions of stellar collision outcomes in $N$-body models of dense star cluster dynamics.

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arXiv2026

Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Formation from Hierarchical Mergers in Galactic Nuclei

Dense stellar environments like nuclear star clusters (NSCs) can dynamically assemble gravitational wave (GW) sources. We consider a population of single stellar mass black holes (BHs) in the inner $0.1$~pc of a NSC surrounding a $4 \times 10^6$~M$_\odot$ supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using a semianalytic model, we account for direct collisions between BHs and stars and GW capture between BHs. We explore the effect of the initial BH mass and spin distributions on their final properties and the production of GW sources. Specifically, we consider upper and lower limits for the BH initial mass distribution, and we account for the possibility that a subset of our initial population are the merger products of primordial BH binaries. We find that $\sim 500$ M$_{\odot}$ intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) can form for our upper limit mass distribution, while our lower limit mass distribution forms none. Most IMBHs $\gtrsim 200$~M$_\odot$ eventually sink towards the center of the cluster and merge with the SMBH. We also find successive BH-star collisions can produce low-spinning BHs with $χ\lesssim 0.2$. Our results have implications for LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA sources. We find that the overall merger rate depends primarily on the initial BH mass distribution and is $\gtrsim 10^{-9}$~yr$^{-1}$ per Milky Way-like galaxy for our range of initial conditions. However, primordial binaries can change the number of GW mergers with second and higher generation progenitor BHs by an order of magnitude.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

Formation of rotating supergiants via stellar mergers in dense clusters: Implications for black hole natal spins

We investigate how massive stellar mergers in young star clusters imprint on black hole spin distributions and the broader implications for gravitational wave sources. The central hypothesis is that angular momentum transferred during stellar mergers substantially affects the spins of the merger products and resulting black holes, with some merger products evolving into collapsar-like objects that retain thick accretion disks that enable efficient spin up. This is in contrast to the more general expectation that black holes form with very small spins, having shed most of their envelope angular momentum via winds and expansion before core collapse. Using roughly 150 N-body models generated with the $\texttt{Cluster Monte Carlo}$ code, $\texttt{CMC}$, we analyze stellar mergers that lead to black hole formation, prioritizing ``significant'' events with mass ratio $q>0.1$. After identifying optimal candidates from our $\texttt{CMC}$ models, we explore detailed stellar structure and post-merger evolution implications with MESA stellar evolution models to capture angular momentum injection and pre-collapse profiles most relevant for the BH natal spin. In our current dataset representative of Milky Way-like globular clusters, up to roughly half of black holes are formed from such mergers, including up to roughly $10\%$ from significant mergers with $q>0.1$. Preliminary angular momentum estimates indicate substantial spin-up during the merger, and trends with mass ratio and stellar properties suggest strong correlations with the final black hole spin. In some cases, dimensionless spin parameters of $a\simeq 0.5$ or more are expected. This process has important implications for the dynamical formation and retention of gravitational wave sources in clusters.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Red vs. Blue: How metallicity shapes black hole dynamics and mergers in dense star clusters

Dense star clusters are a well-established environment for the formation of gravitational wave sources through dynamical interactions. Recent LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) events such as GW241011 and GW241110 provide some of the best evidence yet for a dynamical origin. However, their relatively low component masses are in tension with predictions from low-metallicity globular cluster models (which typically produce more massive black holes), hinting that these events may have originated in higher-metallicity environments. Here we present a new set of Monte Carlo star cluster simulations with refined coverage in metallicity, focusing specifically on clusters with [Fe/H] $\geq-1$, similar to the ''red'' globular cluster subpopulation observed in most galaxies. We show that metallicity has a significant effect on the mass function of black holes and black hole mergers, the total number of black hole mergers per cluster, black hole retention from natal kicks, the mass segregation time for black-hole-driven cluster dynamics, and the merger delay time distribution. We also show that high-metallicity cluster models produce low-mass hierarchical mergers consistent with the mass ratios and component masses of GW241011 and GW241110, motivating the importance of high-metallicity clusters in the astrophysical interpretation of future LVK catalogs.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

Getting Tilted: Random Walk of Binary Black Hole Spin-Orbit Alignment in Dense Star Clusters

It is commonly assumed that the spin-orbit angles of binary black holes (BBHs) originating from dense stellar environments rapidly converge to an isotropic distribution following a number of strong gravitational encounters. We challenge this assumption by modeling the evolution of the BBH orbital angular momentum orientation through successive binary--single encounters as a random walk on the unit sphere, yielding an exact solution for the orientation distribution after $n$ encounters and a closed-form expression for the number of encounters required to reach isotropy. To characterize the step distribution, we conduct a large suite of Newtonian point-particle scattering experiments with an equal-mass binary, varying the mass of the single, and obtain semi-analytic expressions for both the mean step size and the full distribution of steps. Applying these results to BBHs with initially aligned spins, as may arise from the evolution of primordial massive binaries, we find that spin-orbit alignment can survive several strong encounters before being erased. This has direct implications for the slight trend toward spin-orbit alignment reported in GWTC-5.0 as well as for the retention of hierarchical merger products, such as the components of GW231123.

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arXiv2026

Black hole mergers from dense star clusters with realistic binary populations

We present a suite of 24 full-lifetime simulations of dense star clusters with the Cluster Monte Carlo (CMC) code, featuring updated input physics and a realistic distribution of initial binary systems. The latter encompasses a mass-dependent binary fraction, period distribution, and eccentricity distribution based on observations of well-studied stellar populations in the Solar neighborhood and nearby star-forming regions. We predict the cosmic rate, masses, and spins of binary black hole (BBH) mergers formed through dynamical assembly, primordial binary evolution, and hierarchical mergers within dense clusters. As with previous model grids with fewer binaries, dynamically assembled first-generation (1G) mergers dominate the rate of cluster-derived mergers, and the total merger rate is consistent with that inferred from LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observations as of GWTC-5.0. Our models naturally reproduce key features of the inferred BBH population, including the broken-power-law behavior of the primary BH mass spectrum for $m_1 \gtrsim 20 M_\odot$, the shallower (steeper) slope of the secondary mass spectrum relative to the primary for $m_2 \lesssim 10 M_\odot$ ($m_2 \gtrsim 30 M_\odot$), and the shape of the mass-ratio distribution in the low- and high-mass domains. We predict broad distributions of the spin parameters $χ_{\mathrm{eff}}$ and $χ_{\mathrm{p}}$, consistent with previous studies of dynamical assembly in clusters. The merger rate from primordial binary systems within clusters is a small fraction of the total; however, their merger products are frequently involved in subsequent hierarchical mergers, with the result that the hierarchical merger rate evolves more steeply than the 1G dynamical merger rate with redshift.

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arXiv2026

Shadows of the Colossus: Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in a 10-million-body Globular Cluster Simulation

The LIGO/Virgo/Kagra (LVK) Collaboration has detected numerous binary black hole mergers with properties that challenge standard binary evolution scenarios, such as component masses above the pair-instability gap and high spin magnitudes. Dense stellar environments such as globular clusters provide a natural channel for producing such systems through hierarchical mergers, where black hole remnants formed in earlier mergers are retained in the cluster and undergo successive mergers. However, gravitational-wave recoil kicks often eject merger remnants from typical globular clusters, which limits hierarchical growth. Massive clusters with deeper potential wells, such as those found in giant elliptical galaxies like M87, may overcome this barrier, but direct simulations of such massive globular clusters remains computationally challenging. In this study, we present a 10-million-body cluster simulation performed with the $\texttt{Cluster Monte Carlo}$ ($\texttt{CMC}$) code, referred to as $\texttt{colossus}$, which serves as a proxy for the most massive low-metallicity globular clusters observed in the local Universe. This simulation demonstrates that extended chains of hierarchical mergers can occur in massive globular clusters, producing black holes up to fifth generation with masses approaching $250\,M_\odot$, comparable to the most massive LVK events observed to date (e.g., GW231123). Combining the $\texttt{colossus}$ simulation with the previous $\texttt{CMC Cluster Catalog}$, we develop a framework to extrapolate binary black hole merger predictions for the thousands of globular clusters seen in the Virgo Supercluster.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

Modeling Stellar Collisions in Galactic Nuclei Using Hydrodynamic Simulations and Machine Learning

Nuclear star clusters represent some of the most extreme collisional environments in the Universe. A nuclear star cluster like that of the Milky Way harbors a supermassive black hole at its center, which accelerates stars to high speeds ($\gtrsim 100$-$1000$ km/s) in a region where millions of other stars reside. Direct collisions occur in such high-density environments, where they can shape the stellar populations and influence the evolution of the cluster. We present a suite of a couple hundred high-resolution smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of collisions between $1$ M$_\odot$ stars, at impact speeds representative of galactic nuclei. We use our SPH dataset to develop physically-motivated fitting formulae for predicting collision outcomes. While collision-driven mass loss has been examined in detail in the literature, we present a new framework for understanding the effects of ``hit-and-run'' collisions on a star's trajectory. We demonstrate that the change in stellar velocity follows the tidal-dissipation limit for grazing encounters, while the deflection angle is well-approximated by point-particle dynamics for periapses $\gtrsim 0.3$ times the stellar radii. We use our SPH dataset to test two machine learning (ML) algorithms, k-Nearest Neighbors and neural networks, for predicting collision outcomes. We find that the neural network out-performs k-Nearest Neighbors and delivers results on par with and in some cases exceeding the accuracy of our fitting formulae. We conclude that both fitting formulae and ML have merits for modeling collisions in dense stellar environments, however ML may prove more effective as the parameter space of initial conditions expands.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2025

Beyond Hierarchical Mergers: Accretion-Driven Origins of Massive, Highly Spinning Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters

GW231123, the most massive binary black hole (BBH) merger detected by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA, highlights the need to understand the origins of massive, high-spin stellar black holes (BHs). Dense star clusters provide natural environments for forming such systems, beyond the limits of standard massive star evolution to core collapse. While repeated BBH mergers can grow BHs through dynamical interactions (the so-called "hierarchical merger" channel), most star clusters with masses $\lesssim 10^6\,M_\odot$ have escape speeds too low to retain higher-generation BHs, limiting growth into or beyond the mass gap. In contrast, BH--star collisions with subsequent accretion of the collision debris can grow and retain BHs irrespective of the cluster escape speed. Using $N$-body (Cluster Monte Carlo) simulations, we study BH growth and spin evolution through this process and we find that accretion can drive BH masses up to at least $\sim200\,M_\odot$, with spins set by the details of the growth history. BHs up to about $150\,M_\odot$ can reach dimensionless spins $χ\gtrsim 0.7$ via single coherent episodes, while more massive BHs form through multiple stochastic accretion events and eventually spin down to $χ\lesssim 0.4$. These BHs later form binaries through dynamical encounters, producing BBH mergers that contribute up to $\sim10\%$ of all detectable events, comparable to predictions for the hierarchical channel. However, the two pathways predict distinct signatures: hierarchical mergers yield more unequal mass ratios, whereas accretion-grown BHs preferentially form near-equal-mass binaries. The accretion-driven channel allows dense clusters with low escape speeds, such as globular clusters, to produce highly spinning BBHs with both components in or above the mass gap, providing a natural formation pathway to GW231123-like systems.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Spin-Orbit Alignment in Merging Binary Black Holes Following Collisions with Massive Stars

Merging binary black holes (BBHs) formed dynamically in dense star clusters are expected to have uncorrelated spin--orbit orientations since they are assembled through many random interactions. However, measured effective spins in BBHs detected by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA hint at additional physical processes that may introduce anisotropy. Here we address this question by exploring the impact of stellar collisions, and accretion of collision debris, on the spin--orbit alignment in merging BBHs formed in dense star clusters. Through hydrodynamic simulations, we study the regime where the disruption of a massive star by a BBH causes the stellar debris to form individual accretion disks bound to each black hole. We show that these disks, which are randomly oriented relative to the binary orbital plane after the initial disruption of the star, can be reoriented by strong tidal torques in the binary near pericenter passages. Following accretion by the BHs on longer timescales, BBHs with small but preferentially positive effective spin parameters ($χ_{\rm eff} \lesssim 0.2$) are formed. Our results indicate that BBH collisions in young massive star clusters could contribute to the observed trend toward small positive $χ_{\rm eff}$, and we suggest that the standard assumption often made that dynamically assembled BBHs should have isotropically distributed BH spins is not always justified.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Black Hole Accretion and Spin-up Through Stellar Collisions in Dense Star Clusters

Dynamical interactions in dense star clusters could significantly influence the properties of black holes, leaving imprints on their gravitational-wave signatures. While previous studies have mostly focused on repeated black hole mergers for spin and mass growth, this work examines the impact of physical collisions and close encounters between black holes and (non-compact) stars. Using Monte Carlo N-body models of dense star clusters, we find that a large fraction of black holes retained upon formation undergo collisions with stars. Within our explored cluster models, the proportion of binary black hole mergers affected by stellar collisions ranges from $10\%$ to $60\%$. If all stellar-mass black holes are initially non-spinning, we find that up to $40\%$ of merging binary black holes may have components with dimensionless spin parameter $χ\gtrsim 0.2$ because of prior stellar collisions, while typically about $10\%$ have spins near $χ= 0.7$ from prior black hole mergers. We demonstrate that young star clusters are especially important environments as they can produce collisions of black holes with very massive stars, allowing significant spin up of the black holes through accretion. Our predictions for black hole spin distributions from these stellar collisions highlight their sensitivity to accretion efficiency, underscoring the need for detailed hydrodynamic calculations to better understand the accretion physics following these interactions.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2024

Stellar Escape from Globular Clusters. II. Clusters May Eat Their Own Tails

We apply for the first time the Monte Carlo star cluster modeling method to study tidal tail and stellar stream formation from globular clusters, assuming a circular orbit in a smooth Galactic potential. Approximating energetically unbound bodies (potential escapers; PEs) as collisionless enables this fast but spherically symmetric method to capture asymmetric tidal phenomena with unprecedented detail. Beyond reproducing known stream features, including epicyclic overdensities, we show how 'returning tidal tails' may form after the stream fully circumnavigates the Galaxy back to the cluster, enhancing the stream's velocity dispersion. While a realistically clumpy, time-dependent Galactic potential may disrupt such tails, they warrant scrutiny as potentially excellent constraints on the Galactic potential's history and substructure. Re-examining the escape timescale $Δt$ of PEs, we find new behavior related to chaotic scattering in the three-body problem; the $Δt$ distribution features sharp plateaus corresponding to distinct locally smooth patches of the chaotic saddle separating the phase space basins of escape. We study for the first time $Δt$ in an evolving cluster, finding that $Δt\sim(E_{\rm J}^{-0.1},E_{\rm J}^{-0.4})$ for PEs with (low, high) Jacobi energy $E_{\rm J}$, flatter than for a static cluster ($E_{\rm J}^{-2}$). Accounting for cluster mass loss and internal evolution -- and (roughly) for ongoing relaxation among PEs -- lowers the median $Δt$ from ${\sim}10\,$Gyr to ${\lesssim}100\,$Myr. We finally outline future improvements to escape physics in the Monte Carlo method intended to enable both the first large-parameter-space studies of tidal tail/stellar stream formation from full globular cluster simulations and detailed comparisons to stream observations.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

Partial Tidal Disruption of Main-Sequence Stars by Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

We study close encounters of a $1\,M_{\odot}$ middle-age main-sequence star (modeled using MESA) with massive black holes through hydrodynamic simulations, and explore in particular the dependence of the outcomes on the black hole mass. We consider here black holes in the intermediate-mass range, $M_{\rm BH}= 100-10^4\,M_{\odot}$. Possible outcomes vary from a small tidal perturbation for weak encounters all the way to partial or full disruption for stronger encounters. We find that stronger encounters lead to increased mass loss at the first pericenter passage, in many cases ejecting the partially disrupted star on an unbound orbit. For encounters that initially produce a bound system, with only partial stripping of the star, the fraction of mass stripped from the star increases with each subsequent pericenter passage and a stellar remnant of finite mass is ultimately ejected in all cases. The critical penetration depth that separates bound and unbound remnants has a dependence on the black hole mass when $M_{\rm BH} \lesssim 10^3\,M_{\odot}$. We also find that the number of successive close passages before ejection decreases as we go from the stellar-mass black hole to the intermediate-mass black hole regime. For instance, after an initial encounter right at the classical tidal disruption limit, a $1\,M_{\odot}$ star undergoes 16 (5) pericenter passages before ejection from a $10\,M_{\odot}$ ($100\,M_{\odot}$) black hole. Observations of periodic flares from these repeated close passages could in principle indicate signatures of a partial tidal disruption event.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2023

Stellar Escape from Globular Clusters. I. Escape Mechanisms and Properties at Ejection

The theory of stellar escape from globular clusters (GCs) dates back nearly a century, especially the gradual evaporation of GCs via two-body relaxation coupled with external tides. More violent ejection can also occur via strong gravitational scattering, supernovae, gravitational wave-driven mergers, tidal disruption events, and physical collisions, but comprehensive study of the many escape mechanisms has been limited. Recent exquisite kinematic data from the Gaia space telescope has revealed numerous stellar streams in the Milky Way (MW) and traced the origin of many to specific MWGCs, highlighting the need for further examination of stellar escape from these clusters. In this study, the first of a series, we lay the groundwork for detailed follow-up comparisons between Cluster Monte Carlo (CMC) GC models and the latest Gaia data on the outskirts of MWGCs, their tidal tails, and associated streams. We thoroughly review escape mechanisms from GCs and examine their relative contributions to the escape rate, ejection velocities, and escaper demographics. We show for the first time that three-body binary formation may dominate high-speed ejection from typical MWGCs, potentially explaining some of the hypervelocity stars in the MW. Due to their mass, black holes strongly catalyze this process, and their loss at the onset of observable core collapse, characterized by a steep central brightness profile, dramatically curtails three-body binary formation, despite the increased post-collapse density. We also demonstrate that even when born from a thermal eccentricity distribution, escaping binaries have significantly nonthermal eccentricities consistent with the roughly uniform distribution observed in the Galactic field.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2022

Formation of Low-mass Black Holes and Single Millisecond Pulsars in Globular Clusters

Close encounters between neutron stars and main-sequence stars occur in globular clusters and may lead to various outcomes. Here we study encounters resulting in tidal disruption of the star. Using $N$-body models, we predict the typical stellar masses in these disruptions and the dependence of the event rate on host cluster properties. We find that tidal disruption events occur most frequently in core-collapsed globular clusters and that roughly $25\%$ of the disrupted stars are merger products (i.e., blue straggler stars). Using hydrodynamic simulations, we model the tidal disruptions themselves (over timescales of days) to determine the mass bound to the neutron star and the properties of the accretion disks formed. In general, we find that roughly $80-90\%$ of the initial stellar mass becomes bound to the neutron star following disruption. Additionally, we find that neutron stars receive impulsive kicks of up to about $20\,$km/s as a result of the asymmetry of unbound ejecta; these kicks place these neutron stars on elongated orbits within their host cluster, with apocenter distances well outside the cluster core. Finally, we model the evolution of the (hypercritical) accretion disks on longer timescales (days to years after disruption) to estimate the accretion rate onto the neutron stars and accompanying spin-up. As long as $\gtrsim1\%$ of the bound mass accretes onto the neutron star, millisecond spin periods can be attained. We argue the growing numbers of isolated millisecond pulsars observed in globular clusters may have formed, at least in part, through this mechanism. In the case of significant mass growth, some of these neutron stars may collapse to form low-mass ($\lesssim3\,M_{\odot}$) black holes.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2022

Gravitational Microlensing Rates in Milky Way Globular Clusters

Many recent observational and theoretical studies suggest that globular clusters (GCs) host compact object populations large enough to play dominant roles in their overall dynamical evolution. Yet direct detection, particularly of black holes and neutron stars, remains rare and limited to special cases, such as when these objects reside in close binaries with bright companions. Here we examine the potential of microlensing detections to further constrain these dark populations. Based on state-of-the-art GC models from the CMC Cluster Catalog, we estimate the microlensing event rates for black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and, for comparison, also for M dwarfs in Milky Way GCs, as well as the effects of different initial conditions on these rates. Among compact objects, we find that white dwarfs dominate the microlensing rates, simply because they largely dominate by numbers. We show that microlensing detections are in general more likely in GCs with higher initial densities, especially in clusters that undergo core collapse. We also estimate microlensing rates in the specific cases of M22 and 47 Tuc using our best-fitting models for these GCs. Because their positions on the sky lie near the rich stellar backgrounds of the Galactic bulge and the Small Magellanic Cloud, respectively, these clusters are among the Galactic GCs best-suited for dedicated microlensing surveys. The upcoming 10-year survey with the Rubin Observatory may be ideal for detecting lensing events in GCs.

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