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The recent detection of fast-moving stars in the core of Omega Centauri ($\omega$ Cen), the most massive globular cluster (GC) in the Milky Way, has provided strong evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). As…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-22 Elena González Prieto , Carl L. Rodriguez , Tomás Cabrera

When a binary of early-type stars from the young stellar populations in the Galactic center (GC) region is scattered to the vicinity of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) Sgr~$\rm{A}^{*}$, one of the components would be tidally ejected as…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-03-27 Chunyang Cao , Fukun Liu , Shuo Li , Xian Chen , Ke Wang

The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxy centers still remains uncertain. There are two possible ways of their formation - from massive ($10^5 - 10^6 M_{\odot}$) and low-mass ($100 M_{\odot}$) BH nuclei. The latter scenario…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-09-28 Victoria Toptun , Igor Chilingarian , Kirill Grishin , Ivan Katkov , Ivan Zolotukhin , Vladimir Goradzhanov , Mariia Demianenko , Ivan Kuzmun

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

The formation of supermassive black holes at high redshift still remains a puzzle to astronomers. Their growth becomes reasonable only when starting from a massive seed black hole with mass of the order of 10^2 - 10^5 M_SUN.…

In the past three decades, many stars orbiting about the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic Centre (Sgr A*) were identified. Their orbital nature can give stringent constraints for the mass of the SMBH. In particular, the star…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-10-24 Man Ho Chan , Chak Man Lee , Chi Wai Yu

We assess the astrometric detectability of intermediate-mass black holes populating the inner parsec of the Milky Way Galaxy. The presence of these objects induces dynamical effects on Sgr A* and the star S2, which could be detected by next…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-10-17 Eden Girma , Abraham Loeb

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

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses between roughly $10^2\,M_\odot$ and $10^5\,M_\odot$, represent a largely uncharted component of the black-hole (BH) population. They are theoretically predicted to form in several…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-12-17 R. Pascale , G. Battaglia

Black holes (BHs) with masses between 100 to 100,000 times the mass of the Sun ($\rm{M}_{\odot}$) are classified as intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), potentially representing a crucial link between stellar-mass and supermassive BHs.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-02-29 Abbas Askar , Vivienne F. Baldassare , Mar Mezcua

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,…

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) occupy the $ 10^2 - 10^5\,M_\odot $ range, but their existence remains poorly constrained. Only a few candidates have been suggested in dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and LIGO-Virgo-Kagra…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-10-10 Cristiano Ugolini

Nearly every massive galaxy harbors a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in its nucleus. SMBH masses are millions to billions $M_{\odot}$, and they correlate with properties of spheroids of their host galaxies. While the SMBH growth channels,…

For galaxies hosting supermassive black holes (SMBHs), it has been observed that the mass of the central black hole (M_BH) tightly correlates with the effective or central velocity dispersion (sigma) of the host galaxy. The origin of this…

Globular clusters (GCs) are thought to harbor the long-sought population of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We present a systematic search for a putative IMBH in 81 Milky Way GCs, based on archival Chandra X-ray observations. We find…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-08-31 Zhao Su , Zhiyuan Li , Meicun Hou , Mengfei Zhang , Zhongqun Cheng

Globular clusters (GCs) may harbour intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) at their centres. In these dynamically active environments stellar-mass black holes (SBHs) sink to the center soon after formation, due to dynamical friction and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-07-31 Giacomo Fragione , Omer Bromberg

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

The compact and, with 4.3+-0.3 million solar masses, very massive object located at the center of the Milky Way is currently the very best candidate for a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in our immediate vicinity. The strongest evidence for…

There is both theoretical expectation and some observational clues that intermediate mass black holes reside in nuclei of globular clusters. In order to find an independent indicator for their existence, we investigate in this paper how an…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-01-18 L. Subr , G. Fragione , J. Dabringhausen

Gravitational waves (GWs) offer an unprecedented opportunity to survey the sky and detect mergers of compact objects. While intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) have not been detected beyond any reasonable doubt with either dynamical or…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-11-16 Giacomo Fragione