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Related papers: Intermediate Mass Black Holes: A brief review

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Observations of stellar kinematics, gas dynamics and masers around galactic nuclei have now firmly established that many galaxies host central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses in the range $10^6 \sim 10^9$M$_{\odot}$. However,…

The detection of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) in dwarf galaxies is crucial to closing the gap in the wide mass distribution of black holes ($\sim 3 \, \rm M_{\odot}$ to $\sim 5 \times 10^{10} \, \rm M_{\odot}$). IMBHs originally…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-02-15 Emma Jane Weller , Fabio Pacucci , Lars Hernquist , Sownak Bose

In this paper we explore the interplay between intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and their nursing globular clusters (GCs), taking advantage of over 2000 Monte Carlo GC models. We find that the average density of IMBHs sphere of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-05-06 Manuel Arca Sedda , Abbas Askar , Mirek Giersz

Could there be a large population of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) formed in the early universe? Whether primordial or formed in Population III, these are likely to be very subdominant compared to the dark matter density, but could…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-01-31 Thomas Lacroix , Joseph Silk

The most massive galaxies in the Universe also host the largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs), with masses of $10^9 \: \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and above. During their hierarchical assembly, these galaxies have experienced only a few major…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-04-15 Lazaros Souvaitzis , Antti Rantala , Thorsten Naab

Current theoretical models predict a mass gap with a dearth of stellar black holes (BHs) between roughly $50\,M_\odot$ and $100\,M_\odot$, while, above the range accessible through massive star evolution, intermediate-mass BHs (IMBHs) still…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-03-30 Giacomo Fragione , Bence Kocsis , Frederic A. Rasio , Joseph Silk

We explore the formation of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs), potential seeds for supermassive black holes (SMBHs), via runaway stellar collisions for a wide range of star cluster (surface) densities ($4\times10^3 M_\odot$ pc$^{-2}…

We investigate the evolution of star clusters containing intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) of $300$ to $5000\ \mathrm{M}_\odot$, focusing on the formation and evolution of IMBH-stellar mass black holes (SBHs; $M_{\rm BH} \lesssim 10^2\…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-31 Seungjae Lee , Hyung Mok Lee , Ji-hoon Kim , Rainer Spurzem , Jongsuk Hong , Eunwoo Chung

Recently, an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidate was announced in the Galactic globular cluster Omega Centauri. IMBHs at the lower end of the traditional mass range have also been detected through gravitational-wave transients,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-02 Miguel A. S. Martinez , Elena González Prieto , Frederic A. Rasio

The scaling relation of central massive black holes (MBHs) and their host galaxies is well-studied for supermassive BHs (SMBHs, $M_{\rm BH}\ \ge 10^6\, M_{\rm \odot}$). However, this relation has large uncertainties in the mass range of the…

Dense star clusters are promising nurseries for the formation and growth of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs; $\sim 10^2-10^5\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$), with increasing observational evidence pointing to their presence in massive star…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-10-07 Abbas Askar , Marcelo C. Vergara , Sohaib Ali

Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) of $10^3-10^6 \, M_\odot$ are commonly found at the center of dwarf galaxies. Simulations and observations convincingly show that a sizable population of IMBHs could wander off-center in galaxies. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-04-04 Emma Jane Weller , Fabio Pacucci , Yueying Ni , Nianyi Chen , Tiziana Di Matteo , Magdalena Siwek , Lars Hernquist

Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) with a mass range between $100 \, \text{M}_\odot$ and $10^6 \, \text{M}_\odot$ are expected to be surrounded by high dark matter densities, so-called dark matter spikes. The high density of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-09-10 J. Aschersleben , G. Bertone , D. Horns , E. Moulin , R. F. Peletier , M. Vecchi

Between the groundbreaking detections of stellar-mass black holes by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA and JWST's revelation of a surprisingly abundant population of supermassive black holes, one crucial missing link remains: the elusive intermediate-mass…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-21 Colin J. Burke , Priyamvada Natarajan

Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) may be the link between stellar mass holes and the supermassive variety in the nuclei of galaxies, and globular clusters (GCs) may be one of the most promising environments for their formation. Here we…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-12-20 Vivian L. Tang , Piero Madau , Elisa Bortolas , Eric W. Peng

This article documents our ongoing search for the elusive "intermediate-mass" black holes. These would bridge the gap between the approximately ten solar mass "stellar-mass" black holes that are the end-product of the life of a massive…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Jenny E. Greene

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are the link between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. Gravitational waves have started unveiling a population of IMBHs in the $\sim 100-300 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ range. Here, we investigate…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-04 Stefano Torniamenti , Michela Mapelli , Lumen Boco , Filippo Simonato , Giuliano Iorio , Erika Korb

We investigate the formation of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) through hierarchical mergers of stellar origin black holes (BHs), as well as BH mergers formed dynamically in nuclear star clusters. Using a semi-analytical approach…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-10-04 Debatri Chattopadhyay , Jakob Stegmann , Fabio Antonini , Jordan Barber , Isobel M. Romero-Shaw

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) have not been detected beyond any reasonable doubt, despite their potential role as massive seeds for quasars and sources of tidal disruption events, ultra-luminous X-ray sources, dwarf galaxy feedback,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-07-08 Giacomo Fragione , Abraham Loeb , Kyle Kremer , Frederic A. Rasio

Decades after the first predictions of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs) there is still no unambiguous observational evidence for their existence. The most promising signatures for IMBHs are found in the cores…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-05 Stefan Umbreit , Frederic A. Rasio