Black Holes in Binaries and Galactic Nuclei: Diagnostics, Demography and Formation: Proceedings of the ESO Workshop Held at Garching, Germany, 6-8 September 1999, in Honour of Riccardo Giacconi

The observational evidence for the existence of black holes has grown significantly over recent decades. Stellar-mass black holes are detected as X-ray sources in binary systems, while supermassive black holes, with masses more than a million times the mass of the Sun, lurk in the nuclei of galaxies. These proceedings provide a useful and up-to-date overview of the observations of black holes in binaries, in the center of the Milky Way, and in the nuclei of galaxies, presented by leading ex...