Numerical Modeling of Massive Star Clusters: An Evolving Story of the Black Holes

The complicated dynamics of a dense star cluster, such as globular clusters (GC), has important implications across many branches of astrophysics.The typical dense stellar environments in GCs promote formation of stellar exotica, such as X-ray binaries, binary black holes (BH), CVs, and blue straggler stars. I will review the physical processes involved in the evolution of massive star clusters and the challenges of their realistic modeling. One of the most exciting recent developments in our understanding of the evolution of the GCs is intimately related to the dynamical evolution of the BHs a GC is expected to produce. The large initial number of stars in a proto-GC naturally produces large numbers of BHs. What happens to these BHs during the subsequent evolution of the GCs is still an evolving story. I will discuss the key aspects of our latest understanding for BH dynamics in a GC. Cluster dynamics affects the properties of BHs the cluster produces. Similarly, BH dynamics and assumptions related to their formation physics control the evolution of the host cluster and its observable properties. Furthermore, I will discuss these results in the context of the highly anticipated LIGO/Virgo gravitational  wave detection experiment.