Related papers: Beasts in Lambda-CDM Zoo
I briefly outline recent theoretical developments on the formation of the first massive black holes (MBHs) that may grow into the population of MBHs powering quasars and inhabiting galactic centers today. I also touch upon possible…
While large numbers of supermassive black holes have been detected at z>6, their origin is still essentially unclear. Numerical simulations have shown that the conditions for the classical direct collapse scenario are very restrictive and…
Quasars are galaxies hosting accreting supermassive black holes; due to their brightness, they are unique probes of the early universe. To date, only few quasars have been reported at $z > 6.5$ ($<$800 Myr after the Big Bang). In this work,…
Observations have revealed unexpectedly large amounts of dust in high-redshift galaxies and its origin is still much debated. Valiante et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1661) suggested the net stellar dust production of the quasar host galaxy SDSS…
The Universe on large scales is well described by the Lambda-CDM cosmological model. There however remain some heavy clouds on our global understanding, especially on galaxy scales, which we review here. While some of these clouds might…
The supermassive black holes observed at the centers of almost all present-day galaxies, had a profound impact on their environment. I highlight the principle of self-regulation, by which supermassive black holes grow until they release…
The concordance (LambdaCDM) model reproduces the main current cosmological observations assuming the validity of general relativity at all scales and epochs, the presence of cold dark matter, and of a cosmological constant, equivalent to a…
We present constraints on the cosmic growth history with recent cosmological data, allowing for deviations from Lambda CDM as might arise if cosmic acceleration is due to modifications to GR or inhomogeneous dark energy. We combine measures…
Observed magnitudes of many quasars with redshifts exceeding $z=5$ correspond to luminosities $L_{\rm bol} > 10^{14}\,L_\odot$. The standard mechanism of quasar energy release by accretion suggests that masses of superluminous quasars…
All galaxies once passed through a hyperluminous quasar phase powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole. But because these episodes are brief, quasars are rare objects typically separated by cosmological distances. In a survey for…
The abundance of primordial black holes is currently significantly constrained in a wide range of masses. The weakest limits are established for the small mass objects, where the small intensity of the associated physical phenomenon…
The uncharted territory of the high-redshift ($z\gtrsim3$) Universe holds the key to understand the evolution of quasars. In an attempt to identify the most extreme members of the quasar population, i.e., blazars, we have carried out a…
Although the current galaxy models yield calculations consistent with much of the data, many irregularities exist, exceptions have been found to the current models, the $\Lambda$CDM model apparently fails on galaxy scales, dark matter…
Observations suggest that high-redshift galaxies are either very dusty or essentially dust free. The evolution from one regime to the other must also be very fast, since evolved and dusty galaxies show up at redshifts corresponding to a…
We study the prospects of finding the first quasars in the universe with ALMA and JWST. For this purpose, we derive a model for the high-redshift black hole population based on observed relations between the black hole mass and the host…
Interstellar dust plays a crucial role in the evolution of the Universe by assisting the formation of molecules, by triggering the formation of the first low-mass stars, and by absorbing stellar ultraviolet-optical light and subsequently…
The currently standard theory of cosmic structure formation posits that the present-day clumpy appearance of the universe developed through gravitational amplification of the matter density fluctuations that are generated in the very early…
Dark matter could be composed by black-hole remnants formed before the big-bang era in a bouncing cosmology. This hypothetical scenario has major implications on the issue of the arrow of time: it would upset a common attribution of past…
We report for the first time a sample of 12 supermassive black holes (SMBHs) hosted by low-mass galaxies at cosmic noon, i.e., in a redshift range consistent with the peak of star formation history: $z \sim 1-3$. These black holes are two…
One of the fundamental questions about quasars is related to their central supermassive black holes. The reason for the existence of these black holes with such a huge mass is still unclear and various models have been proposed to explain…