Probing Intermediate–mass Black Holes Using Tidal Disruption Events

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) play an important role in the formation and evolution history of supermassive black holes, while few are detected. Finding more IMBHs helps us to better understand their formation mechanisms, and how SMBHs are produced through seed IMBHs. Meanwhile, X-ray detected tidal disruption events (TDEs) provides a unique opportunity to measure both the mass and the spin of IMBHs, as well as to study the black hole accretion process in the super–Eddington regime. Through X-ray data analysis and especially, modelling of the TDE X-ray spectra and their evolution as a function of
time using a slim disc model, the work in this thesis draws novel, strong constraints on the mass and in some cases also the spin of the black hole studied, contributing to a better understanding of the
IMBH mass distribution. This thesis also provide insights about individual sources concerning their emission mechanisms and their formation channels.