The postcollapse core of M15 imaged with the HST Planetary Camera

We have obtained U-band images of the M15 core with the Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope. We are able to resolve stars down to the main-sequence turnoff (mU ≈ 19.4) into the cluster center. We use crowded field photometry techniques to decompose M15 into bright resolved stars and a residual component consisting of stars at turnoff brightness or fainter. The residual component comprises 59% of the cluster light and follows a γ = -0.71 power-law distribution for r > 1″. The residual component flattens off interior to this radius and has a large core with r = 2″.2 = 0.13 pc. The core size may reflect postcollapse core expansion. The resolved stars have a slightly shallower distribution (γ = -0.53) but have an abrupt overdensity for r < 1″.5, which accounts for the unresolved surface brightness cusp at ground resolution. The bright stars do not become more highly concentrated at still smaller radii, however; neither the bright stars nor the residual component form a cusp at subarcsecond resolution. The total central density of light in all components is 8 × 10⁵ L_⊙ pc^-3 (U-band). The Peterson, Seitzer, and Cudworth central velocity dispersion implies a high core M/L ≈ 8 (U-band). The existence of a core rather than a cusp at the 0.1 pc scale may imply that the centrally deduced dark matter is in a diffuse form rather than a massive black hole.