Related papers: The first supermassive black holes
The existence of supermassive black holes is supported by a growing body of observations. Supermassive black holes and their formation events are likely candidates for detection by proposed long-wavelength, space-based gravitational wave…
Small black holes should have formed in the early Universe if the density contrast was high enough. This article aims at giving a - biased and partial - short overview of the latest breakthroughs in this field. It first deals with tentative…
The article summarizes the observational evidence for the existence of massive black holes, as well as the current knowledge about their abundance, their mass and spin distributions, and their cosmic evolution within and together with their…
Almost every galaxy in the local Universe is observed to have a massive black hole in the centre. The properties of these black holes are observed to tightly correlate with those of their host galaxy which has been interpreted as…
Recent James Webb Space Telescope observations have unveiled that the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were in place at z $\geq$ 10, a few hundred Myrs after the Big Bang. These discoveries are providing strong constraints on the…
We argue that the stable (color singlet) supermassive gravitinos proposed in our previous work can serve as seeds for giant primordial black holes. These seeds are hypothesized to start out as tightly bound states of fractionally charged…
Observations of the most luminous quasars at redshift z>6 reveal the existence of numerous supermasssive black holes (>10^9 Msun) already in place about twelve billion years ago. In addition, the interstellar medium of the galaxies hosting…
I present an elementary primer of black hole physics, including its general relativity basis, all peppered with astrophysical illustrations. Following a brief review of the process stellar collapse to a black hole, I discuss the…
Supermassive binary black holes and their influence on the structure and evolution of galaxies is reviewed.
Observations of quasars reveal that many supermassive black holes (BHs) were in place less than 700 million years after the Big Bang. However, the origin of the first BHs remains a mystery. Seeds of the first BHs are postulated to be either…
We present a new model for the formation of black holes in cosmological simulations, motivated by the first star formation. Black holes form from high density peaks of primordial gas, and grow via both gas accretion and mergers. Massive…
Tracking the evolution of high redshift seed black hole masses to late times, we examine the observable signatures today. These massive initial black hole seeds form at extremely high redshifts from the direct collapse of pre-galactic gas…
The presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs, $M_{\bullet}\sim 10^{6-10}~M_{\odot}$) in the first cosmic Gyr ($z\gtrsim 6$) challenges current models of BH formation and evolution. We propose a novel mechanism for the formation of early…
We review the current status of knowledge concerning the early phases of star formation during cosmic dawn. This includes the first generations of stars forming in the lowest mass dark matter halos in which cooling and condensation of gas…
The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) remains a long-standing problem in astrophysics. Recent JWST observations reveal an unexpectedly abundant population of overmassive black holes at z>4-6, where the BH masses lie far above local…
Despite traditional thinking, an appreciable population of massive black holes may be lurking in dwarf galaxies. Prior to the last decade, nearly all massive black holes were found in the nuclei of giant galaxies and the existence of…
Massive black holes are key inhabitants of the nuclei of galaxies. Moreover, their astrophysical relevance has gained significant traction in recent years, thanks especially to the amazing results that are being (or will be) delivered by…
This review addresses one of the important topics of current astrophysical research, namely the role that supermassive black holes play in shaping the morphology of their host galaxies. There is increasing evidence for the presence of…
Some aspects of black holes in supersymmetric theories of gravity are reviewed and some recent results outlined.
I review our current understanding of massive black hole (MBH) formation and evolution along the cosmic history. After a brief introductory overview of the relevance of MBHs in the hierarchical structure formation paradigm, I discuss the…