Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:13:37.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Massive black holes: formation and evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Martin J. Rees
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK email: [email protected]
Marta Volonteri
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Supermassive black holes are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies. Observations have revealed us vast information on the population of local and distant black holes, but the detailed physical properties of these dark massive objects are still to be proven. Accretion of gas and black hole mergers play a fundamental role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole: mass and spin. We briefly review here the basic properties of the population of supermassive black holes, focusing on the still mysterious formation of the first massive black holes, and their evolution from early times to now.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Abramowicz, M. A. & Lasota, J. P. 1980, Acta Astronomica, 30, 35Google Scholar
Afshordi, N. & Paczynski, B. 2003, ApJ, 594, 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aller, M. C. & Richstone, D. 2002, AJ, 124, 3035CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armitage, P. J. & Natarajan, P. 2005, Apj, 634, 921CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barack, L. & Cutler, C. 2004, PhRvD, 70l2002Google Scholar
Barth, A. J., Martini, P., Nelson, C. H. & Ho, L. C. 2003, ApJ, 594, L95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barth, A. J., Ho, L. C., Rutledge, R. E. & Sargent, W. L. W. 2004, ApJ, 607, 90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begelman, M. C. 1979, MNRAS, 187, 237CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begelman, M. C., Blandford, R. D. & Rees, M. J. 1980, Nature, 287, 307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begelman, M. C. & Meier, D. L. 1982, ApJ, 253, 873CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begelman, M. C., Volonteri, M. & Rees, M. J. 2006, MNRAS, submitted (astro-ph/0602363)Google Scholar
Berti, E., Buonanno, A. & Will, C. M. 2005, Phys. Rev. D71, 084025Google Scholar
Berti, E., Cardoso, V. & Will, C. M. 2006, Phys. Rev. D73, 064030Google Scholar
Bromm, V. & Loeb, A. 2003, ApJ, 596, 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, B. J., Bond, J. R. & Arnett, W. D. 1984, ApJ, 277, 445CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotti, M., Colpi, M. & Haardt, F. 2006, MNRAS, 367, 103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstein, D. J. & Loeb, A. 1995, ApJ, 443, 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elvis, M., Risaliti, G. & Zamorani, G. 2002, ApJ, 565, L75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Escala, A., Larson, R. B. & Coppi, P. 2004, ApJ, 607, 765CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabian, A. C., Rees, M. J., Stella, L. & White, N. E. 1989, MNRAS, 238, 729CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrarese, L. & Merritt, D. 2000, ApJL, 539, 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fryer, C. L., Woosley, S. E. & Heger, A. 2001, ApJ, 550, 372CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gebhardt, K. et al. 2000, ApJL, 543, 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, A. & Rix, H.-W. 2000, ApJ, 532, 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haehnelt, M. G. & Rees, M. J. 1993, MNRAS, 263, 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krolik, J. H. 1999, ApJ, 515, 73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koushiappas, S. M., Bullock, J. S. & Dekel, A. 2004, MNRAS, 354, 292Google Scholar
Lang, R. N. & Hughes, S. A. 2006, gr-qc/0608062Google Scholar
Laor, A. 1991, ApJ, 376, 90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lodato, G. & Natarajan, P. 2006, astro-ph/0606159Google Scholar
Loeb, A. & Rasio, F. A. 1994, ApJ, 432, 52CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madau, P. & Rees, M. J. 2001, ApJ, 551, L27Google Scholar
Marconi, A. et al. 2004, MNRAS, 351, 169CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, L. et al. 2006, astro-ph/0602029Google Scholar
Merloni, A., Rudnick, G. & di, Matteo T. 2004, MNRAS, 354, 37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milosavljevic, M. & Merritt, D. 2001, ApJ, 563, 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miniutti, G., Fabian, A. & Miller, J. M. 2004, MNRAS, 351, 466CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moderski, R., Sikora, M. & Lasota, J.-P. 1998, MNRAS, 301, 142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mo, H. J., Mao, S. & White, S. D. M. 1998, MNRAS, 295, 319CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakamura, F. & Umemura, M. 2001, ApJ, 548, 19Google Scholar
Natarajan, P. & Pringle, J. E. 1998, ApJ, 506, 97CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oh, S. P. & Haiman, Z. 2002, ApJ, 569, 558CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinlan, G. D. & Hernquist, L. 1997, New Astronomy, 2, 533CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richstone, D. 2004, Supermassive black holes: Demographics and implications; in Coevolution of Black Holes and Galaxies, Carnegie Obs. Ast. Ser. Vol. 1 ed. Ho, L. C. (Cambridge Univ. Press: Cambridge), p. 281Google Scholar
Sesana, A., Haardt, F. & Madau, P. 2006, ApJ, 651, 392CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sesana, A., Volonteri, M. & Haardt, F. 2007, MNRAS submittedGoogle Scholar
Shlosman, I., Frank, J. & Begelman, M. C. 1989, Nature, 338, 45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soltan, A. 1982, MNRAS, 200, 115Google Scholar
Spergel, D. N., Bean, R., Dore', O., Nolta, M. R., Bennett, C. L. et al. 2006, ApJ, in press (astro-ph/0603449)Google Scholar
Streblyanska, A. et al. 2005, A&A, 432, 395Google Scholar
Thorne, K. S. 1974, ApJ, 191, 507CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremaine, S. et al. 2002, ApJ, 574, 740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vecchio, A. 2004, Phys. Rev. D70, 042001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volonteri, M. et al. 2005, ApJ, 620, 69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volonteri, M., Haardt, F. & Madau, P. 2003, ApJ, 582, 559CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volonteri, M. & Rees, M. J. 2005, Apj, 633, 624CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volonteri, M., Sikora, M. & Lasota, J.-P. 2007, MNRAS submittedGoogle Scholar
Willott, C. J. et al. 2005, ApJ, 626, 657Google Scholar
Yu, Q. & Tremaine, S. 2002, MNRAS, 335, 965CrossRefGoogle Scholar