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Related papers: Where are the Intermediate Mass Black Holes?

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It is widely accepted that black holes (BHs) with masses greater than a million solar masses (Msun) lurk at the centres of massive galaxies. The origins of such `supermassive' black holes (SMBHs) remain unknown (Djorgovski et al. 1999),…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-09-06 Tomoharu Oka , Shiho Tsujimoto , Yuhei Iwata , Mariko Nomura , Shunya Takekawa

Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) in the mass range $10^2-10^5\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ bridge the gap between stellar black holes (BHs) and supermassive BHs. Here, we investigate the possibility that IMBHs form in young star clusters via…

We investigate the consequences of a model of the assembly and growth of massive black holes from primordial seeds, remnants of the first generation of stars in a hierarchical structure formation scenario. Our model traces the build-up of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Marta Volonteri , Rosalba Perna

There have been reports of possible detections of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs). Empirically, there exists a tight correlation between the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the mean velocity…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-03 Yu-Qing Lou , Yi-Hong Wu

Observations suggest that star clusters often form in binaries or larger bound groups. Therefore, mergers between two clusters are likely to occur. If these clusters both harbor an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; 10^{2-4} Msun) in their…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Pau Amaro-Seoane , Marc Freitag

Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH) mergers with masses $10^4 - 10^6$ $M_{\odot}$ are expected to produce gravitational waves (GWs) detectable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) with high signal to noise ratios out to redshift…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-08-28 Fazeel Mahmood Khan , Fiza Javed , Kelly Holley-Bockelmann , Lucio Mayer , Peter Berczik , Andrea V. Macciò

Despite their potential role as massive seeds for quasars, in dwarf galaxy feedback, and in tidal disruption events, the observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) is scarce. LISA may observe stellar-mass black hole…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-07-13 Vladimir Strokov , Giacomo Fragione , Kaze W. K. Wong , Thomas Helfer , Emanuele Berti

Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBHs; 10^1.3-5 M_sun) are thought to form as relics of Population III stars or from the runaway collapse of stars in young clusters; their number and very existence are uncertain. We ran N-body simulations of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 M. Mapelli , A. Ferrara , N. Rea

If "seed" central black holes were common in the subgalactic building blocks that merged to form present-day massive galaxies, then relic intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) should be present in the Galactic bulge and halo. We use a…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 Valery Rashkov , Piero Madau

Gravitational waves emitted by merging black holes between $\sim 10^4-10^7~M_\odot$ will be detectable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) with signal-to-noise ratios of several hundred out to redshift 20. Supermassive black…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-10-04 Fazeel Mahmood Khan , Kelly Holley-Bockelmann

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

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

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,…

We have compelling evidence for stellar-mass black holes (BHs) of ~5-80 M_sun that form through the death of massive stars. We also have compelling evidence for so-called supermassive BHs (10^5-10^10 M_sun) that are predominantly found in…

Massive black holes in the centers of galaxies today must have grown by several orders of magnitude from seed black holes formed at early times. Detecting a population of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) can provide constraints on…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-10-28 Tiziana Di Matteo , Yueying Ni , Nianyi Chen , Rupert Croft , Simeon Bird , Fabio Pacucci , Angelo Ricarte , Michael Tremmel

There is a lot of current astrophysical evidence and interest in intermediate mass black holes, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand solar masses. The active galaxy M82 and the globular cluster in M31, for example, are known to…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-10-01 C. Sivaram , Kenath Arun

Detecting the seed black holes from which quasars formed is extremely challenging; however, those seeds that did not grow into supermassive should be found as intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of 100-10$^5$ M$_{\odot}$ in local dwarf…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-04-07 M Mezcua

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are the missing link in the cosmic hierarchy of black holes, bridging the gap between stellar-mass black holes and supermassive ones. They also serve as unique laboratories for testing strong-field…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-20 Huan Zhou , Zhengxiang Li , Cheng-Gang Shao , Xi-Jing Wang , Kai Liao , He Gao , Zong-Hong Zhu

In this paper, we address the question: What is the probability of stellar-mass black hole (BH) binaries co-existing in a globular cluster with an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH)? Our results suggest that the detection of one or more BH…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-22 Nathan W. C. Leigh , Nora Luetzgendorf , Aaron M. Geller , Thomas J. Maccarone , Craig O. Heinke , Alberto Sesana

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