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Dwarf galaxies might not be the birth sites of supermassive black holes

Intermediate-mass black holes (BHs) in local dwarf galaxies are considered the relics of the early seed BHs. However, their growth might have been impacted by galaxy mergers and BH feedback so that they cannot be treated as tracers of the early seed BH population.

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Fig. 1: Formation and evolution of seed black holes.

adapted from ref. 7, World Scientific

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Mezcua, M. Dwarf galaxies might not be the birth sites of supermassive black holes. Nat Astron 3, 6–7 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0662-2

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