Using radio emission to detect isolated and quiescent accreting black holes

Abstract

We discuss the implications of new relations between black holes' masses, X-ray luminosities and radio luminosities, as well as the properties of the next generation of radio telescopes, for the goal of finding isolated accreting black holes. Because accreting black holes have radio-to-X-ray flux ratios that increase with decreasing luminosity in Eddington units, and because deep surveys over large fields of view should be possible with planned instrumentation such as LOFAR, radio surveys should be significantly more efficient than X-ray surveys for finding these objects.