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Cited by 288

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 264 of the 264 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes

Open access
Mezcua, Mar·2017·International Journal of Modern Physics D

Abstract

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses in the range [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M[Formula: see text], are the link between stellar-mass BHs and supermassive BHs (SMBHs). They are thought to be the seeds from which SMBHs grow, which would explain the existence of quasars with BH masses of up to 10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]M[Formula: see text] when the Universe was only 0.8 Gyr old. The detection and study of IMBHs has thus strong implications for understanding how SMBHs form and grow, which is ultimately linked to galaxy formation and growth, as well as for studies of the universality of BH accretion or the epoch of reionization. Proving the existence of seed BHs in the early Universe is not yet feasible with the current instrumentation; however, those seeds that did not grow into SMBHs can be found as IMBHs in the nearby Universe. In this review, I summarize the different scenarios proposed for the formation of IMBHs and gather all the observational evidence for the few hundreds of nearby IMBH candidates found in dwarf galaxies, globular clusters, and ultraluminous X-ray sources, as well as the possible discovery of a few seed BHs at high redshift. I discuss some of their properties, such as X-ray weakness and location in the BH mass scaling relations, and the possibility to discover IMBHs through high velocity clouds, tidal disruption events, gravitational waves, or accretion disks in active galactic nuclei. I finalize with the prospects for the detection of IMBHs with up-coming observatories.

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Metadata

Authors
Mezcua, M.
Venue
International Journal of Modern Physics D
Published
2017-09-19
Volume
26
Issue
11
Pages
1730021
ISSN
  • 0218-2718 (ISSN-L)
  • 1793-6594
OpenAlex
W2617281150
Cited by
288
References
264
FWCI
16.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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Mezcua, M. (2017). Observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes. International Journal of Modern Physics D. https://doi.org/10.1142/s021827181730021x

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