Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries in the Galactic Center

Understand

Binaries consisting of a pulsar and a black hole (BH) are a holy grail of astrophysics, both for their significance for stellar evolution and for their potential application as probes of strong gravity.

• In spite of extensive surveys of our Galaxy and its system of globular clusters, no pulsar-black hole (PSR-BH) binary has been found to date.
• Clues as to where such systems might exist are therefore highly desirable.
• We show that if the central parsec around Sgr A* harbors a cluster of ~25,000 stellar BHs (as predicted by mass segregation arguments) and if it is also rich in recycled pulsar binaries (by analogy with globular clusters), then 3-body exchange interactions should produce PSR-BHs in the Galactic center.