Related papers: Desperately Seeking Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
Evidence is mounting that some Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) may contain accreting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We review the current observational evidence for IMBH-ULXs. While low-luminosity ULXs with L_X <~ 10^39.5 erg/s…
Intermediate-mass black holes are theoretically predicted but observationally elusive, and evidence for them is often indirect. The nearby face-on spiral galaxy NGC3310 has hosted many supernovae in recent history, and recent Chandra…
We investigate the possibility that present-day galaxies and their dark matter haloes contain a population of massive black holes (MBHs) that form by hierarchical merging of the black hole remnants of the first stars in the Universe. Some…
Stellar-mass black holes ($3$ $M_\odot \lesssim M_{\rm BH} \lesssim 150$ $M_\odot$) are the natural product of the evolution of heavy stars ($M_{\rm star} \gtrsim 20$ $M_\odot$). In our Galaxy, we expect $10^8$-$10^9$ stellar-mass black…
Gravitational microlensing has been employed to identify massive halo objects by their amplification of distant sources; MACHO searches have studied event times $2 h \lesssim t_0 \lesssim 2 y$ corresponding masses in the range $10^{-6}…
It is argued that the bulk of black holes (BH) in the universe are primordial (PBH). This assertion is strongly supported by the recent astronomical observations, which allow to conclude that supermassive BHs with $M= (10^6 - 10^9) M_\odot$…
It is now well-established that a dark, compact object (DCO), very likely a massive black hole (MBH) of around four million solar masses is lurking at the centre of the Milky Way. While a consensus is emerging about the origin and growth of…
We review the formation and evaporation of primordial black holes (PBHs) and their possible contribution to dark matter. Various constraints suggest they could only provide most of it in the mass windows $10^{17}$ - $10^{23}\,$g or $10$ -…
We study the formation of intermediate-mass ratio inspirals (IMRIs) triggered by the interactions between two stellar black holes (BHs) and an intermediate-mass BH (IMBH) inhabiting the centre of a dense star cluster. We exploit $N$-body…
The dimensionless entropy, ${\cal S} \equiv S/k$, of the visible universe, taken as a sphere of radius 50 billion light years with the Earth at its "center", is discussed. An upper limit ($10^{112}$), and a lower limit ($10^{102}$), for…
Recent observations of globular clusters (GCs) provide evidence that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may not be universal, suggesting specifically that the IMF grows increasingly top-heavy with decreasing metallicity and increasing…
Although their existence is not yet confirmed observationally, intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) may play a key role in the dynamics of galactic nuclei. In this paper, we neglect the effect of the nuclear star cluster itself and…
This work considers the idea of massive black holes being the constituents of the Galactic dark matter halo. It constrains the maximum black hole mass to $\mbh \sil 5 \times 10^4 \msun$ by examining their influence on the population of…
We study the prospects for detecting gamma-rays from Dark Matter (DM) annihilations in enhancements of the DM density (mini-spikes) around intermediate-mass black holes with masses in the range $10^2 \lsim M / \msun \lsim 10^6$. Focusing on…
We investigate a possibility to find an accreting isolated black hole (IBH) with mass $1-100~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ within Central Galactic Molecular Zone (CMZ) in the submillimetre and IR spectral range with help of planned space…
The possibility that the dark matter comprises primordial black holes (PBHs) is considered, with particular emphasis on the currently allowed mass windows at $10^{16}$ - $10^{17}\,$g, $10^{20}$ - $10^{24}\,$g and $1$ - $10^{3}\,M_{\odot}$.…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are common in local galactic nuclei, and SMBHs as massive as several billion solar masses already exist at redshift z=6. These earliest SMBHs may grow by the combination of radiation-pressure-limited…
Seven observations point towards the existence of primordial black holes (PBH), constituting the whole or an important fraction of the dark matter in the Universe: the mass and spin of black holes detected by Advanced LIGO/VIRGO, the…
Dynamical searches find central dark objects - candidate supermassive black holes (BHs) - in at least 34 galaxies. The demographics of these objects lead to the following conclusions: (1) BH mass correlates with the luminosity of the bulge…
The spin of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) growing through repeated black hole mergers in stellar clusters statistically asymptotes to zero. Putative observations of IMBHs with dimensionless spin parameter $\chi\gtrsim 0.6$ would…