Research Highlight

Direct gravitational imaging of IMBHs

A galaxy halo may contain a large number of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) with masses in the range of 100-100,000 solar mass. We propose to directly detect these IMBHs by observing multiply imaged QSO-galaxy or galaxy-galaxy strong lens systems in the submillimeter bands with high angular resolution. The silhouette of an IMBH in the lensing galaxy halo would appear as a "black hole". From numerical simulations, we have found that most of the IMBHs orbiting close to the center are freely roaming as they have lost their dark matter hosts during infall due to tidal stripping.

Next generation submillimeter telescopes with high angular resolution ~0.3 mas will be capable of directly mapping such off-nuclear freely roaming IMBHs with a mass of O(10^6 solar mass) in a lensing galaxy that harbours a O(10^9 solar mass) supermassive black hole in its nucleus.

For detail, see arxiv.org/abs/1301.5067