A fast-rising tidal disruption event from a candidate intermediate-mass black hole

Massive black holes (BHs) at the centres of massive galaxies are ubiquitous. The population BHs within dwarf galaxies, on other hand, is not yet known. Dwarf thought to harbour with proportionally small masses, including intermediate-mass BHs, masses 102 < MBH 106 solar (M⊙). Identification these systems has historically relied detection light emitted from accreting gaseous disks close BHs. Without this light, they difficult detect. Tidal disruption events, luminous flares produced when a star strays BH and shredded, direct way probe rise times theoretically correlate mass. Here we present AT 2020neh, fast-rising tidal event candidate, hosted by galaxy. 2020neh can be described main sequence 104.7–105.9 M⊙ BH. We find observable rate nuclear transients like low, ≲2 × 10−8 events Mpc−3 yr−1. Finding non-accreting in important determine how prevalent constrain models formation. 2020neh-like may provide galaxy-independent method measuring rapid brightness attributed destruction hole intermediate mass Such rare, challenging find.