Hypervelocity stars from star clusters hosting Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

Understand

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) represent a unique population of stars in the Galaxy reflecting properties of the whole Galactic potential.

• Determining their origin is of fundamental importance to constrain the shape and mass of the dark halo.
• The leading scenario for the ejection of HVSs is an encounter with the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Centre.
• However, new proper motions from the \textit{Gaia} mission indicate that only the fastest HVSs can be traced back to the Galactic centre and the remaining stars originate in the disc or halo.