Formation Scenarios for Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

Abstract

Black holes with hundreds to thousands of solar masses are more massive than can be formed from a single star in the current universe, yet the best candidates for these objects are not located in gas-rich environments where gradual accretion could build up the mass. Three main formation scenarios have been suggested in the literature: that intermediate-mass black holes are the remnants of the first, metal-poor, stars; that they result from direct collisions in young stellar clusters; or that they are produced by gradual interactions and mergers of compact objects in old dense clusters. We discuss each of these in turn and speculate on future observations that may help sharpen our understanding of the formation of intermediate-mass black holes.