- Greene, Jenny E;
- Barth, Aaron;
- Bellini, Andrea;
- Bellovary, Jillian;
- Holley-Bockelmann, Kelly;
- Do, Tuan;
- Gallo, Elena;
- Gebhardt, Karl;
- Gultekin, Kayhan;
- Haiman, Zoltan;
- Hosek, Matthew;
- Kim, Dongwon;
- Libralato, Mattia;
- Lu, Jessica;
- Nyland, Kristina;
- Malkan, Matthew;
- Reines, Amy;
- Seth, Anil;
- Treu, Tommaso;
- Walsh, Jonelle;
- Wrobel, Joan
We have compelling evidence for stellar-mass black holes (BHs) of ~5-80 M_sun
that form through the death of massive stars. We also have compelling evidence
for so-called supermassive BHs (10^5-10^10 M_sun) that are predominantly found
in the centers of galaxies. We have very good reason to believe there must be
BHs with masses in the gap between these ranges: the first ~10^9 M_sun BHs are
observed only hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, and all
theoretically viable paths to making supermassive BHs require a stage of
"intermediate" mass. However, no BHs have yet been reliably detected in the
100-10}^5 M_sun mass range. Uncovering these intermediate-mass BHs of 10^3-10^5
M_sun is within reach in the coming decade. In this white paper we highlight
the crucial role that 30-m class telescopes will play in dynamically detecting
intermediate-mass black holes, should they exist.