Related papers: Quasistars and the cosmic evolution of massive bla…
JWST observations demonstrate that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) exist by redshifts $z \gtrsim 10$, providing further evidence for "direct collapse" black hole (BH) formation, whereby massive ($\sim 10^{3-5} M_{\odot}$) SMBH seeds are…
Observations by JWST have confirmed the presence of supermassive black holes (BHs) at redshifts $z\gtrsim10$, lending support to scenarios in which BHs experience rapid growth through intense gas accretion. Here we investigate the growth of…
We consider a scenario where supermassive black holes form through direct accumulation of gas at the centre of proto-galaxies. In the first stage, the accumulated gas forms a super-massive star whose core collapses when the nuclear fuel is…
High-redshift luminous quasars powered by accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with mass $\gtrsim 10^9 M_\odot$ constrain their formation pathways. We investigate the formation of heavy seeds of SMBHs through gas collapse in the…
We study a model in which supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can grow by the combined action of gas accretion on heavy seeds and mergers of both heavy (m_s^h=10^5 Msol) and light (m_s^l = 10^2 Msol) seeds. The former result from the direct…
We present a theoretical framework for seeding and growing supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in dark matter halos along their assembly histories. Seeds are bred out of Pop-III stars formed during the first collapse of pristine gas in…
We study the structure and evolution of "quasistars", accreting black holes embedded within massive hydrostatic gaseous envelopes. These configurations may model the early growth of supermassive black hole seeds. The accretion rate onto the…
The origin of the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs) observed at redshifts $z\geq 9$ remains one of the most challenging open questions in astrophysics. Their rapid emergence suggests that massive ``heavy seeds'' must have formed early,…
We study the early growth of massive seed black holes (BHs) via accretion in protogalactic nuclei where the stellar bulge component is assembled, performing axisymmetric two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations. We find that…
We employ cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to study the growth of massive black holes (BHs) at high redshifts subject to BH merger recoils from gravitational wave emission. We select the most massive dark matter halo at z=6 from the…
The correlations between the mass of supermassive black holes and properties of their host galaxies are investigated through cosmological simulations. Black holes grow from seeds of 100 solar masses inserted into density peaks present in…
Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have identified an abundant population of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) already in place during the first few hundred million years of cosmic history. Most of them appear…
We assess models for the assembly of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies that trace their hierarchical build-up far up in the dark halo `merger tree'. We assume that the first `seed' black holes (BHs) formed in…
Observations of the most luminous quasars at high redshifts ($z > 6$) have revealed that the largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at those epochs tend to be substantially overmassive relative to their host galaxies compared to the local…
The rapid emergence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early Universe poses a challenge to current models of black hole growth. One promising formation pathway is the direct collapse black hole (DCBH) scenario, in which gas in…
The supermassive black holes (SMBHs) massive enough to power the bright redshift ~6 quasars observed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are thought to have assembled by mergers and/or gas accretion from less massive "seed" BHs. If the…
We study the statistics and cosmic evolution of massive black hole seeds formed during major mergers of gas-rich late-type galaxies. Generalizing the results of the hydro-simulations from Mayer et al. 2010, we envision a scenario in which a…
The detection of quasars at $z>6$ unveils the presence of supermassive black holes (BHs) of a few billion solar masses. The rapid formation process of these extreme objects remains a fascinating and open issue. Such discovery implies that…
The recent observations of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at high redshift challenge our understanding of their formation and growth. There are different proposed pathways to form black hole (BH) seeds, such as the remnants of the first…
The nature of the first seeds of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is currently unknown, with postulated initial masses ranging from $\sim10^5~M_{\odot}$ to as low as $\sim10^2~M_{\odot}$. However, most existing cosmological simulations…