Origin, Growth and Feedback of Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies (dwarfbh2022)

The study of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies is an emerging research enterprise. More than a decade after the first detections of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in dwarf galaxies, multiple multiwavelength searches are still ongoing with the aim of transforming our knowledge of their census and properties. Likewise, theoretical models of the origin and co-evolution of supermassive black holes in their host galaxies, traditionally focused on massive galaxy hosts, have recently begun to address intermediate-mass black holes in dwarfs. As the black hole masses of AGN in present-day dwarfs are in the range 104-105 M☉, a relation could exist, or not, with similarly massive black hole seeds at high redshift. Whether or not black holes in dwarfs are “fossil seeds” is a key question, as it might yield unique tests of different hypotheses on black hole formation. Finally, dwarf galaxies, in the context of galaxy formation and cosmology, are unique objects as they probe more directly the nature of fundamental components of modern theories, such as the dark halo structure and feedback processes, due to their shallow potential wells. Their nature, in turn, might have important effects on the dynamics of black holes inside them, such as on the formation of black hole binaries that could later coalesce by gravitational waves.

List of topics:

• Status of observations of AGN in dwarf galaxies (growth, variability, feedback)
• Theoretical models for black hole formation in dwarfs
• Black hole seeds and dwarf connection

Included reviews:

• Dwarf galaxies in LCDM structure formation (theoretical)
• General review on black holes in dwarfs (theoretical)
• General review on dwarf galaxy population (observational)
• Gravitational waves from intermediate-mass black holes
• Nuclear star clusters

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

Silvia Bonoli (Donostia International Physics Center, San Sebastian)

Lucio Mayer (University of Zurich)

Mar Mezcua (Institute of Space Sciences, Barcelona)

Luis Ho (Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing)

Justin Read (University of Surray)