Search for Intermediate-mass Black Holes at Low Redshift with Intra-night Variability

Abstract

Abstract We present a sample of intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates based on the detection of a broad Hα emission line and variability, which are selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. By performing spectral decomposition of emission lines as well as a visual inspection, we initially identified 131 targets with a broad Hα line among a large sample of emission line galaxies. We further selected 25 IMBH candidates whose estimated black hole mass (M BH) is less than 106 M ⊙. To constrain the nature of these candidates, we analyzed X-ray properties and performed an intra-night variability monitoring campaign with optical telescopes. Based on the optical variability analysis, we report a sample of 11 targets with detected intra-night variability as the best IMBH candidates, which are suitable for follow-up observations for accurate M BH determination such as reverberation mapping campaigns.