Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
M. Coleman Miller (University of Maryland)
Black holes have historically been thought to come in two
flavors: between a few and tens of solar masses, formed in
supernovae; and millions to billions of solar masses, grown
in the centers of galaxies. However, several recent lines
of evidence point to a class of intermediate-mass black holes
that exists in a number of dense stellar clusters. These
black holes are expected to be found in binaries. As a result,
three and four body interactions are common, in a realm including
both Newtonian effects and general relativistic effects such
as precession of the pericenter and orbital evolution due to
gravitational radiation. These objects may therefore be a new
source of gravitational waves with unique properties. We will discuss
the possibility of detecting this gravitational radiation with future
instruments such as LISA and LIGO II, and speculate on current
observations that will test our predictions.
