A universal minimal mass scale for present-day central black holes

Tal Alexander; Ben Bar-Or

doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0147

paper

A universal minimal mass scale for present-day central black holes

arXiv:1701.00415 · doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0147

Abstract

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) of mass $M_{∙} \approx 1 0^{2} - 1 0^{5}$ solar masses, $M_{⊙}$ , are the long-sought missing link between stellar black holes, born of supernovae, and massive black holes, tied to galaxy evolution by the empirical $M_{∙} / σ_{⋆}$ correlation. We show that low-mass black hole seeds that accrete stars from locally dense environments in galaxies following a universal $M_{∙} / σ_{⋆}$ relation grow over the age of the Universe to be above $M_{0} \approx 3 \times 1 0^{5} M_{⊙}$ ( $5%$ lower limit), independent of the unknown seed masses and formation processes. The mass $M_{0}$ depends weakly on the uncertain formation redshift, and sets a universal minimal mass scale for present-day black holes. This can explain why no IMBHs have yet been found, and it implies that present-day galaxies with $σ_{⋆} < S_{0} \approx 40 km s^{- 1}$ lack a central black hole, or formed it only recently. A dearth of IMBHs at low redshifts has observable implications for tidal disruptions and gravitational wave mergers.

Published in Nature Astronomy (http://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0147). This is the Authors' final version, which is identical in content to the published version but slightly different in the presentation

A universal minimal mass scale for present-day central black holes

Abstract

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