Related papers: Supermassive black hole formation via collisions i…
Supermassive black holes are prevalent at the centers of massive galaxies, and their masses scale with galaxy properties, increasing evidence suggesting that these trends continue to low stellar masses. Seeds are needed for supermassive…
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 first massive astrophysical black holes likely formed at high redshifts (z>10) at the centers of low mass (~10^6 Msun) dark matter concentrations. These black holes grow by mergers and gas accretion, evolve into the population of bright…
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…
We investigate the formation of the first massive black holes in high redshift galaxies, with the goal of providing insights to which galaxies do or do not host massive black holes. We adopt a novel approach to forming seed black holes in…
Rapid formation of supermassive black holes occurs in dense nuclear star clusters that are initially gas-dominated. Stellar-mass black hole remnants of the most massive cluster sink into the core, where a massive runaway black hole forms as…
It has been recently suggested that supermassive black holes at z = 5-6 might form from super-fast (\dot M > 10^4 Msun/yr) accretion occurring in unstable, massive nuclear gas disks produced by mergers of Milky-Way size galaxies.…
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth plausibly occurs via runaway astrophysical black hole mergers in nuclear star clusters that form intermediate mass black hole seeds at high redshifts. Such a model yields an order-of-magnitude higher…
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…
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…
The most massive black holes at redshifts z = 6 were already over billion solar masses. In this chapter, we discuss the formation and growth of the first black holes in the Universe. The deaths of massive primordial stars provide potential…
We present a model for the formation of massive black holes ($\sim 1000 \msun$) due to stellar-dynamical processes in the first stellar clusters formed at early cosmic times ($z\sim10-20$). The high redshift black hole seeds form as a…
Evidence shows that massive black holes reside in most local galaxies. Studies have also established a number of relations between the MBH mass and properties of the host galaxy such as bulge mass and velocity dispersion. These results…
Black holes exceeding a billion solar masses have been detected at redshifts greater than six. The rapid formation of these objects may suggest a massive early seed or a period of growth faster than Eddington. Here we suggest a new…
Models aiming to explain the formation of massive black hole seeds, and in particular the direct collapse scenario, face substantial difficulties. These are rooted in rather ad hoc and fine-tuned initial conditions, such as the simultaneous…
The most massive black holes, lurking at the centers of large galaxies, must have formed less than a billion years after the big bang, as they are visible today in the form of bright quasars at redshift larger than six. Their early…
Observations of distant bright quasars suggest that billion solar mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were already in place less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Models in which light black hole seeds form by the collapse of…
The presence of supermassive black holes at redshift z > 6 raises some questions about their formation and growth in the early universe. Due to the construction of new telescopes like the ELT to observe and detect SMBHs, it will be useful…
Supermassive black holes with up to a $\rm 10^{9}~M_{\odot}$ dwell in the centers of present-day galaxies, and their presence has been confirmed at z $\geq$ 6. Their formation at such early epochs is still an enigma. Different pathways have…
To explain the observed population of supermassive black holes at z~7, very massive seed black holes or, alternatively, super-Eddington scenarios are needed to reach final masses of the order of 10^9 solar masses. A popular explanation for…