The Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Reverberation Mapping Project: Scientific Overview and Sample Characteristics

@misc{guo2026intermediatemass,
  title = {{The Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Reverberation Mapping Project: Scientific Overview and Sample Characteristics}},
  author = {Hengxiao Guo and Jiancheng Wu and Wenwen Zuo and Ruining Tian and Xuechen Zheng and Meicun Hou and Paulina Lira and Philip G. Edwards and Vivian U and Shu Wang and Mar Mezcua and Luis C. Ho and Minfeng Gu and Tao An and Samuzal Barua and Colin J. Burke and Zhen-yi Cai and Xuheng Ding and Haicheng Feng and Alok C. Gupta and ShaSha Li and Wanling Liu and Wen-juan Liu and Ru-sen Lu and Dragana Ilić and Andjelka B. Kovačević and Yu Pan and Luka Č. Popović and Wenke Ren and Paula Sánchez-Sáez and Jamie Stevens and Jingbo Sun and Mouyuan Sun and Chizhuo Wang and Junxian Wang and Rongfeng Shen and Xuebing Wu and Yong Shi and Zhefu Yu and Zhenya Zheng and Ling Zhu},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.02179},
  eprint = {2609.02179},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02179},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - The Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Reverberation Mapping Project: Scientific Overview and Sample Characteristics
AU  - Hengxiao Guo
AU  - Jiancheng Wu
AU  - Wenwen Zuo
AU  - Ruining Tian
AU  - Xuechen Zheng
AU  - Meicun Hou
AU  - Paulina Lira
AU  - Philip G. Edwards
AU  - Vivian U
AU  - Shu Wang
AU  - Mar Mezcua
AU  - Luis C. Ho
AU  - Minfeng Gu
AU  - Tao An
AU  - Samuzal Barua
AU  - Colin J. Burke
AU  - Zhen-yi Cai
AU  - Xuheng Ding
AU  - Haicheng Feng
AU  - Alok C. Gupta
AU  - ShaSha Li
AU  - Wanling Liu
AU  - Wen-juan Liu
AU  - Ru-sen Lu
AU  - Dragana Ilić
AU  - Andjelka B. Kovačević
AU  - Yu Pan
AU  - Luka Č. Popović
AU  - Wenke Ren
AU  - Paula Sánchez-Sáez
AU  - Jamie Stevens
AU  - Jingbo Sun
AU  - Mouyuan Sun
AU  - Chizhuo Wang
AU  - Junxian Wang
AU  - Rongfeng Shen
AU  - Xuebing Wu
AU  - Yong Shi
AU  - Zhefu Yu
AU  - Zhenya Zheng
AU  - Ling Zhu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/02
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.02179
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02179
AB  - Recent discoveries with the James Webb Space Telescope of massive black holes at high redshift have highlighted fundamental questions about black hole seed formation and the coevolution of black holes with their host galaxies. Because the initial seed population cannot yet be observed directly, nearby intermediate-mass black holes provide a complementary fossil record of black hole formation and early growth. Motivated by this opportunity, we present the Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Reverberation Mapping (IMBH-RM) project and construct a homogeneous Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample of active broad-line IMBHs by uniformly reanalyzing literature candidates with consistent spectral decomposition and black hole mass estimation. Our sample contains 192 reliable IMBH candidates at z≲0.3 with log(M_BH/M_⊙)<6, including four particularly compelling sources with log(M_BH/M_⊙)<5. The primary goal of IMBH-RM is to obtain reliable black hole masses from direct measurements and characteristic sizes of the broad-line region and accretion disk for a carefully selected subsample. These measurements will provide robust low-mass anchors for calibrating single-epoch black hole mass estimates and extending black hole--galaxy scaling relations into the IMBH regime. By building a statistically meaningful reverberation-mapped sample spanning 10^4−10^6 M_⊙, we aim to constrain the local IMBH mass distribution and place observational constraints on competing black hole seed formation scenarios. The future Multi-Channel Imager aboard the Chinese Space-station Survey Telescope provides a particularly promising platform for achieving these goals.
ER  -