The Origins and the Early Evolution of Quasars and Supermassive Black Holes

Abstract

The relationship between galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBH) found in their cores plays a key role in the formation and evolution of both of these major constituents of the universe, as well as the evolution of the intergalactic medium. Neither can be fully understood on their own, and studies of galaxy and SMBH co-formation and co-evolution are now among the central topics of research in cosmology. Yet the very origins, and the early growth phases of the SMBH are still not firmly established. We review our current understanding of the relevant processes and their astrophysical and cosmological context, with an emphasis on the observability of the SMBH growth mechanisms at high redshifts, and their leftover progeny at low redshifts.

Signature of an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in the Central Molecular Zone of Our Galaxy

“…However, the origins of such supermassive black holes (SMBHs) remain unknown (e.g., Djorgovski et al 2008). One possible scenario is that a "seed" BH with tens or hundreds of solar masses at the center of a galaxy grows by accretion of matter (e.g., Volonteri & Rees 2005).…”

A UV flux constraint on the formation of direct collapse black holes

“…Their formation mechanisms in the juvenile Universe remain unknown. The potential progenitors of SMBHs include the remnants of Pop III stars (Haiman & Loeb 2001;Haiman 2004;Tanaka & Haiman 2009;Whalen & Fryer 2012;Hirano et al 2014;Madau et al 2014), dense stellar cluster (Portegies Zwart et al 2004;Omukai et al 2008;Devecchi & Volonteri 2009) and direct collapse of a protogalactic gas cloud into so-called direct collapse black holes (DCBHs) (Oh & Haiman 2002 Dijkstra et al 2008;Djorgovski et al 2008;Shang et al 2010;Johnson et al 2010;Volonteri 2010;Schleicher et al 2010;Latif et al 2011;Volonteri & Bellovary 2012;Haiman 2012;Prieto et al 2013;Latif et al 2013a,d;Aykutalp et al 2013;Yue et al 2013;Latif et al 2013e;Wutschik et al 2013;Yue et al 2014;Inayoshi et al 2014;Visbal et al 2014).…”

Finding the First Cosmic Explosions. I. Pair-Instability Supernovae

“…Population III (Pop III) stars are the key to understanding primeval galaxies Greif et al 2008;Johnson et al 2009;Greif et al 2010;Jeon et al 2012;Pawlik et al 2011Pawlik et al , 2013Wise et al 2012), the chemical enrichment and reionization of the early IGM (Smith & Sigurdsson 2007;Smith et al 2009;Chiaki et al 2013;Ritter et al 2012;Safranek-Shrader et al 2013), and the origin of supermassive black holes (Bromm & Loeb 2003;Djorgovski et al 2008;Milosavljević et al 2009;Alvarez et al 2009;Lippai et al 2009;Tanaka & Haiman 2009;Park & Ricotti 2011, 2012Johnson et al 2012;Agarwal et al 2012;Johnson et al 2013c;Park & Ricotti 2013;Latif et al 2013a,b;Schleicher et al 2013;Choi et al 2013). Unfortunately, even though they are thought to be extremely luminous (Schaerer 2002), individual Pop III stars will not be visible to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, Gardner et al 2006), the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) or the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), (but see Rydberg et al 2013, on the possibility of detecting Pop III star H II regions by strong gravitational lensing).…”