Masses of Black Holes in the Universe

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods for determining the masses of various black hole classes in the universe, highlighting the ranges and uncertainties for stellar, intermediate, and supermassive black holes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of mass measurement techniques and summarizes current mass estimates across different black hole categories.

Findings

Stellar mass BHs range from 3 to 20 solar masses.

IMBHs are estimated between hundreds to tens of thousands of solar masses.

SBHs have masses from 3x10^5 to 6x10^10 solar masses.

Abstract

The different methods of determination of black holes (BHs) masses are presented for three classes of BHs observed in the Universe: stellar mass BHs, intermediate mass BHs (IMBHs) and supermassive BHs (SBHs). The results of these determinations are briefly reviewed: stellar mass BHs are found in the range of about 3 to about 20 solar masses, IMBHs in the range of a few hundreds to a few tens of thousands solar masses (the determinations are much less precise for these objects) and SBHs in the range of about 3x10^5 to about 6x10^10 solar masses.