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arXiv · 1801.01095

Intermediate Mass Black Holes: A brief review

Filippos Koliopanos
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Abstract

Intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) are an (as yet) elusive class of black holes that are expected to lie in the $10^2-10^5\,M_{\odot}$ range, between the firmly established stellar-mass black holes and ${\gtrsim}10^6\,M_{\odot}$ 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.

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Filippos Koliopanos. 2018-01-03. Intermediate Mass Black Holes: A brief review. https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01095

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