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Related papers: Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

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Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of mass $M_{\bullet} \approx 10^{2} - 10^{5}$ solar masses, $M_{\odot}$, are the long-sought missing link between stellar black holes, born of supernovae, and massive black holes, tied to galaxy…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-09-21 Tal Alexander , Ben Bar-Or

Intermediate mass black holes play a critical role in understanding the evolutionary connection between stellar mass and super-massive black holes. However, to date the existence of these species of black holes remains ambiguous and their…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-05-10 Bülent Kızıltan , Holger Baumgardt , Abraham Loeb

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…

This article reviews the current status of black hole astrophysics, focusing on topics of interest to a physics audience. Astronomers have discovered dozens of compact objects with masses greater than 3 solar masses, the likely maximum mass…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2011-05-10 Ramesh Narayan

Nuclear star clusters, which fragment into metal-poor stars in situ at the centers of protogalaxies, provide ideal environments for the formation of intermediate-mass black holes with masses $10^3-10^6M_\odot$. We utilize the semianalytic…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-10-17 Konstantinos Kritos , Emanuele Berti , Joseph Silk

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

Mass estimates, based on scaling relationships, are presented of central black holes in luminous quasars at a range of redshifts (z < 0.5, 1.2 ~< z ~< 6.3). The data show that very massive (about 10^9 solar masses or larger) black holes…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 M. Vestergaard

It has been assumed that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters can only reside in the most centrally concentrated clusters, with a so-called `core-collapsed' density profile. While this would be a natural guess, it is…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Holger Baumgardt , Junichiro Makino , Piet Hut

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

The most compelling evidences for the existence of stellar-mass black holes have been obtained through observations of X-ray binary systems. The application of classical methods and the development of new techniques have allowed us to…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2009-07-22 Josep M. Paredes

The study of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) is a young and promising field of research. Formed by runaway collisions of massive stars in young and dense stellar clusters, intermediate-mass black holes could still be present in the…

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

Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses between 100 to 10^5 M_\odot, represent the link between stellar mass black holes and the supermassive black holes that reside in galaxy centers. While IMBHs are crucial to our understanding…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-07-25 Jenna M. Cann , Shobita Satyapal , Nicholas P. Abel , Claudio Ricci , Nathan J. Secrest , Laura Blecha , Mario Gliozzi

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-20 Tomaso M. Belloni

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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-09-29 Fulvio Melia

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses of hundreds to thousands of solar masses, will be unique sources of gravitational waves for LISA. Here we discuss their context as well as specific characteristics of IMBH-IMBH and…

Astrophysics · Physics 2010-04-21 M. Coleman Miller

Black holes are usually observed to be of stellar-mass or supermassive. By natural extension, there should be a population of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs: with mass between $100$ to $10^6 M_{\odot}$) in the Universe; which has…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-06-24 Paramita Barai , Elisabete M. de Gouveia Dal Pino

If a black hole has a low spin value, it must double its mass to reach a high spin parameter. Although this is easily accomplished through mergers or accretion in the case of supermassive black holes in galactic centers, it is impossible…

The existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters (GCs) remains a crucial problem. Searching IMBHs in GCs reveals a discrepancy between radio observations and dynamical modelings: the upper mass limits constrained…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-16 Mou-Yuan Sun , Ya-Ling Jin , Wei-Min Gu , Tong Liu , Da-Bin Lin , Ju-Fu Lu

Black holes formed in dense star clusters, where dynamical interactions are frequent, may have fundamentally different properties than those formed through isolated stellar evolution. Theoretical models for single star evolution predict a…