Related papers: Stellar-Mass Black Holes
Here we report a measurement of the orbital period and mass function of GRS 1915+105 which allow us to deduce a mass of 14 +- 4 solar masses for its black hole. This large mass provides a challenge for black hole formation scenarios in…
Supermassive black holes have generally been recognized as the most destructive force in nature. But in recent years, they have undergone a dramatic shift in paradigm. These objects may have been critical to the formation of structure in…
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…
If the stellar population of the bulge contains black holes formed in the final core collapse of ordinary stars with M \ga 30 M_{\odot}, then about 25,000 stellar mass black holes should have migrated by dynamical friction into the central…
The existence of compact stellar remnants in the mass range $2-5\,M_{\odot}$ has long been debated. This so-called lower mass gap was initially suggested by the lack of low-mass X-ray binary observations with accretors about…
We report upper limits on the masses of black holes that can be present in the centers of 16 nearby galaxy bulges. These limits for our statistically complete sample were derived from the modeling of the central emission-line widths ([N II]…
Observations of distant bright quasars suggest that billion solar mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were already in place less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Models in which light black hole seeds form by the collapse of…
The (supermassive black hole mass, $M_\text{BH}$)-(bulge stellar mass, $M_{\rm*,sph}$) relation is, obviously, derived using two quantities. We endeavor to provide accurate values for the latter via detailed multicomponent galaxy…
Recent surveys suggest that most or all normal galaxies host a massive black hole with 1/100 to 1/1000 of the visible mass of the spheroid of the galaxy. Various lines of argument suggest that these galaxies have merged at least once in our…
It has been suggested that there are $\sim 10^5$ black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries in our Galaxy. However, despite the effort of intensive radio search for decades, none of these binaries has been found to date. These binaries are…
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…
The collapse of massive stars is one of the most-studied paths to black hole formation. In this chapter, we review black hole formation during the collapse of massive stars in the broader context of single and binary stellar evolution and…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) found in the centers of many galaxies have been recognized to play a fundamental active role in the cosmological structure formation process. In hierarchical formation scenarios, SMBHs are expected to form…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are those between 100 and 10$^5$ solar masses ($M_{\odot}$); their formation process is debated. One possible origin is the growth of less massive black holes (BHs) via mergers with stars and compact…
We propose a model in which intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) with mass of ~10000 Msun are formed in early dark matter halos. We carry out detailed stellar evolution calculations for accreting primordial stars including annihilation…
One of the key open questions in cosmology today pertains to understanding when, where and how super massive black holes form, while it is clear that mergers likely play a significant role in the growth cycles of black holes, how…
Surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope find supermassive black holes (BHs) of 10**6 to 10**9.5 solar masses in every galaxy that has an elliptical-galaxy-like "bulge" component. BHs appear to be standard equipment in galaxy bulges. At the…
The robustness of stellar-dynamical black hole (BH) mass measurements is illustrated using 7 galaxies that have results from independent groups. Derived masses have remained constant to a factor of about 2 as spatial resolution has improved…
We review the main physical processes that lead to the formation of stellar binary black holes (BBHs) and to their merger. BBHs can form from the isolated evolution of massive binary stars. The physics of core-collapse supernovae and the…
A large number of Ultra-Luminous X-ray Sources in external galaxies is now known, but the discussion about their nature is still unsettled: intermediate-mass black holes or stellar-mass black holes accreting above the Eddington limit? A…