CANCELLED: Black holes and neutron stars in globular clusters

THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

I will discuss the dynamics of globular clusters, and the reasons why, for many decades, it was believed that they did not contain black holes.  I will then discuss the observational approaches that have overturned this thinking, with the results that the ratio of black holes to neutron stars in globular clusters is about the same as in field star populations, modulo considerable uncertainty in all four numbers.  Along the way, I will show how the studies of black holes in clusters can be used to constrain the size scales of extra dimension in certain alternative theories of gravity, and how the properties of the neutron star-hosting globular clusters argue for electron capture supernovae as an important mechanism for producing neutron stars in clusters.

Sponsored by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.