Name: Eva Noyola

Institution: Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestial Physics

e-mail: noyola(no-spam)mpe.mpg.de

Partner Contry: USA

Science Meeting: Yes

User Meeting: Yes

NGO Staff Meeting: NO

Presentation: Yes

Format: Oral

Title: Looking for Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Star Clusters

Co-author: Karl Gebhardt, Marcel Bergmann

Co-authors' Institutions: University of Texas at Austin, Gemini observatories

Abstract: There have been claims by various authors of finding evidences for the presence of intermediate mass black holes at the center of star clusters. We briefly review those cases and then present our results for omega Centauri. We measure a central surface brightness profile from an ACS image, as well as central velocity dispersion measurements from the GEMINI-GMOS IFU. These datasets, completed with radial velocities for individual stars suggest the presence of an intermediate mass black hole of 40,000 M_sun in the center of omega Centauri. We also present preliminary results for M54 and M80. We use a combination of custom designed masks in GMOS and the GNIRS IFU to measure a velocity dispersion profile for both clusters.