Related papers: The Emerging Black Hole Mass Function in the High-…
JWST reveals numerous high-z galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs), suggesting that stars and SMBH seeds formation at $z \gtrsim 10$ may be more efficient than previously derived. One popular SMBH seed scenario is the Direct…
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…
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…
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary systems are unavoidable outcomes of galaxy mergers. Their dynamics encode information about their formation and growth, the composition of their host galactic nuclei, the evolution of galaxies, and the…
The population of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is composed by quiescent SMBHs, such as those seen in local galaxies including the Milky Way's, and active ones, resulting in quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN). Outside our…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recently identified Abell 2744-QSO1 as a compact, metal-poor, black hole (BH) dominated galaxy at $z\simeq 7$. This system exhibits an extreme black-hole-to-stellar mass ratio and unusually low…
Recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have suggested the existence of over-massive black holes (OMBHs) in high-redshift galaxies. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism for the formation of OMBHs, based on the…
The presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses up to $M_\bullet\sim10^9M_\odot$ at redshifts $z\simeq7.5$ suggests that their seeds may have started to grow long before the reionization in ambient medium with pristine chemical…
Supermassive black holes with masses $\gtrsim 10^9\,M_\odot$ have been discovered by JWST at high redshifts ($z\sim 7$). It is difficult to explain such objects as the result of accretive growth of stellar-mass seeds, as the rate at which…
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 report on a calculation of the growth of the mass of supermassive black holes at galactic centers from dark matter and Eddington - limited baryonic accretion. Assuming that dark matter halos are made of fermions and harbor compact…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled numerous massive black holes (BHs) in faint, broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The discovery highlights the presence of dust-reddened AGN populations, referred to as "little red…
Space telescope observations of massive black holes during their formation may be key to understanding the origin of supermassive black holes and high-redshift quasars. To create diagnostics for their detection and confirmation, we study a…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the early Universe are thought to be prominent sources of energy and ionizing photons that affected the growth of their host galaxy and their environment. However, it is still unclear how the supermassive…
The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is a key open question for contemporary astrophysics and cosmology. Here we review the features of a cosmological model of SMBH formation from Pop III.1 seeds, i.e., remnants of metal-free…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have identified a class of compact galaxies at high redshifts ($4 \lesssim z \lesssim 11$), dubbed "little red dots" (LRDs). The supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of…
The pathway(s) to seeding the massive black holes (MBHs) that exist at the heart of galaxies in the present and distant Universe remains an unsolved problem. Here we categorise, describe and quantitatively discuss the formation pathways of…
We present the mass function of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) over the redshift range z=0-2, using the latest deep luminosity and mass functions of field galaxies to constrain the masses of their spheroids, which we relate to SMBH mass…
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses between roughly $10^2\,M_\odot$ and $10^5\,M_\odot$, represent a largely uncharted component of the black-hole (BH) population. They are theoretically predicted to form in several…
As massive black holes (MBHs) grow from lower-mass seeds, it is natural to expect that a leftover population of progenitor MBHs should also exist in the present universe. Dwarf galaxies undergo a quiet merger history, and as a result, we…