Detecting intermediate mass black holes in midiquasars with current and future surveys

TL;DR

This study explores the potential to detect intermediate mass black holes in dwarf galaxies through their radio emissions, predicting that upcoming surveys could identify a significant fraction of these elusive objects.

Contribution

The paper develops population models to predict radio emissions from intermediate mass black holes and assesses their detectability with current and future astronomical surveys.

Findings

Upcoming surveys like SKA, ngVLA, and Rubin Observatory could detect over 38% of such black holes.

Some low-luminosity active galactic nuclei may already be midiquasars.

Detection of these black holes can fill gaps in understanding their growth and evolution.

Abstract

The lack of detected intermediate mass black holes poses a gap in our understanding of the growth and evolution of the most exotic of astrophysical objects. Here we investigate the possibility of low-luminosity relativistic jets launched by intermediate mass black holes in the centers of dwarf galaxies. We built population models that allow us to make predictions for their radio emission and quantify their detectability by current and future surveys. We find that the upcoming instruments in optical and radio like the SKA, ngVLA and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will likely be able to detect a significant fraction ($>38\%$) of such sources population if they exist. In addition, our results suggest that it is not unlikely a small number of midiquasars possibly masquerading as low-luminosity active galactic nuclei may have already been detected by existing surveys.