How Black Holes Shape Globular Clusters: Modeling NGC 3201

Numerical simulations have shown that black holes (BHs) can strongly influence the evolution and present-day observational properties of globular clusters (GCs). Using a Monte Carlo code, we construct GC models that match the Milky Way cluster NGC 3201, the first cluster in which a stellar-mass BH was identified through radial velocity measurements. We predict that NGC 3201 contains ≳200 stellar-mass BHs. Furthermore, we explore the dynamical formation of main-sequence-BH binaries and demonstrate that systems similar to the observed BH binary in NGC 3201 are produced naturally. Additionally, our models predict the existence of bright blue straggler-BH binaries that are unique to core-collapsed clusters, which otherwise retain few BHs.