2018/01/03 by F. Koliopanos, Koliopanos, Filippos
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1801.01095
openalex publication_date 2018/01/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) are an (as yet) elusive class of black holes that are expected to lie in the 102-105 M\odot range, between the firmly established stellar-mass black holes and \gtrsim106 M\odot supermassive black holes. Predicted by a variety of theoretical models, IMBHs are the potential seeds of supermassive black holes and are expected to power some of the brightest extra-nuclear X-ray sources. This brief review is the result of a presentation and subsequent discussion of IMBHs that took place during the 12th International Frascati workshop on "Multifrequency Behaviour of High Energy Cosmic Sources". The manuscript aims to provide a concise and up-to-date review of the different evolutionary scenarios for the creation of IMBHs. Throughout the text I emphasize the importance of the identification and classification of IMBHSs in our effort to understand the formation of supermassive black holes and their co-evolution with their host galaxies.