Related papers: What do observations tell us about the highest-red…
We present a long-term, multi-wavelength project to understand the epoch of fastest growth of the most massive black holes by using a sample of 40 luminous quasars at z~4.8. These quasars have rather uniform properties, with typical…
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 formation mechanism of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in general, and of $\sim 10^9\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ SMBHs observed as luminous quasars at redshifts $z> 6$ in particular, remains an open fundamental question. The presence of such…
We present new ALMA band-7 data for a sample of six luminous quasars at z~4.8, powered by fast-growing supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with rather uniform properties: the typical accretion rates and black hole masses are L/L_Edd~0.7 and…
The Sloan Digital Sky survey detected luminous quasars at very high redshift, z>6. Follow-up observations indicated that at least some of these quasars are powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses in excess of billion solar…
The properties of quasar-host galaxies might be determined by the growth and feedback of their supermassive (SMBH, $10^{8-10}$ M$_{\odot}$) black holes. We investigate such connection with a suite of cosmological simulations of massive…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies, and the available data show an empirical correlation between bulge luminosity - or stellar velocity dispersion - and black hole mass, suggesting a…
There is overwhelming evidence for the presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of most nearby galaxies. The mass estimates for these remnant black holes from the stellar kinematics of local galaxies and the quasar…
In the local universe, the masses of Super-Massive Black-Holes (SMBH) appear to correlate with physical properties of their hosts, including the mass of the dark-matter halos. At higher redshifts, we observe the growth of SMBHs indirectly…
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…
The correlation between the mass of supermassive black holes (SMBHs; $\mathcal{M}_{\rm BH}$) and their host galaxies ($\mathcal{M}_\star$) in the reionization epoch provides valuable constraints on their early growth. High-redshift quasars…
Observations of high-redshift quasars at z>6 imply that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses over a billion solar masses were in place less than 1 Gyr after the Big Bang. If these SMBHs assembled from "seed" BHs left behind by the…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are thought to originate from early Universe seed black holes of mass $M_\mathrm{BH} \sim 10^2$-10$^5$ M$_{\odot}$ and grown through cosmic time. Such seeds could be powering the active galactic nuclei (AGN)…
One of the main themes in extragalactic astronomy for the next decade will be the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. Many future observatories, including JWST, ALMA, GMT, TMT and E-ELT will intensively observe starlight over a broad…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies are generally thought to coevolve, so that the SMBH achieves up to about 0.2 to 0.5% of the host galaxy mass in the present day. The radiation emitted from the growing SMBH is…
We discuss a model for the early 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'. Motivated by the observations of luminous quasars around…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can grow through both accretion and mergers. It is still unclear how SMBHs evolve under these two channels from high redshifts to the SMBH population we observe in the local universe. Observations can…
The discoveries made over the past 20 years by Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys in conjunction with multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopic data available in the same fields have significantly changed the view of the supermassive black hole…
Luminous quasars powered by accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have been found in the early Universe at $z \gtrsim 7.5$, which set a strong constraint on both the seed black hole mass and the rapid growth of the SMBHs. In this work,…
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…