X-RAY PROPERTIES OF INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES. III. SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION AND POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR INTRINSICALLY X-RAY-WEAK ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI

ABSTRACT We present the discovery of ASASSN-18jd (AT 2018bcb), a luminous optical/ultraviolet(UV)/X-ray transient located in the nucleus of the galaxy 2MASX J22434289–1659083 at z = 0.1192. Over the year after discovery, Swift UltraViolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT) photometry shows the UV spectral energy distribution of the transient to be well modelled by a slowly shrinking blackbody with temperature $T \sim 2.5 \times 10^{4} \, {\rm K}$, a maximum observed luminosity of $L_{\rm max} = 4.5^{+0.6}_{-0.3}\times 10^{44} \, {\rm erg \,s}^{-1}$, and a radiated energy of $E = 9.6^{+1.1}_{-0.6} \times 10^{51} \, {\rm erg}$. X-ray data from Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and XMM–Newton show a transient, variable X-ray flux with blackbody and power-law components that fade by nearly an order of magnitude over the following year. Optical spectra show strong, roughly constant broad Balmer emission and transient features attributable to He ii, N iii–v, O iii, and coronal Fe. While ASASSN-18jd shares similarities with tidal disruption events (TDEs), it is also similar to the newly discovered nuclear transients seen in quiescent galaxies and faint active galactic nuclei (AGNs).

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PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION AND EMISSION LINE PROPERTIES OF RED 2MASS ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI

The Astrophysical Journal ◽

10.1088/0004-637x/692/2/1180 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 692 (2) ◽

pp. 1180-1189 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Joanna Kuraszkiewicz ◽

Belinda J. Wilkes ◽

Gary Schmidt ◽

Paul S. Smith ◽

Roc Cutri ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Principal Component Analysis ◽

Energy Distribution ◽

Emission Line ◽

Active Galactic Nuclei ◽

Spectral Energy Distribution ◽

Galactic Nuclei ◽

Principal Component ◽

Component Analysis ◽

Spectral Energy

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Observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes

International Journal of Modern Physics D ◽

10.1142/s021827181730021x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (11) ◽

pp. 1730021 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Mar Mezcua

Keyword(s):

Black Holes ◽

Galaxy Formation ◽

Globular Clusters ◽

High Redshift ◽

Galactic Nuclei ◽

Observational Evidence ◽

Intermediate Mass ◽

X Ray ◽

Mass Scaling ◽

Intermediate Mass Black Holes

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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