Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Formation of supermassive black holes

  • Review Article
  • Published:
The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review Aims and scope

Abstract

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 suggest that central MBHs, while much less massive than the host (~0.1%), are linked to the evolution of galactic structure. In hierarchical cosmologies, a single big galaxy today can be traced back to the stage when it was split up in hundreds of smaller components. Did MBH seeds form with the same efficiency in small proto-galaxies, or did their formation had to await the buildup of substantial galaxies with deeper potential wells? I briefly review here some of the physical processes that are conducive to the evolution of the massive black hole population. I will discuss black hole formation processes for ‘seed’ black holes that are likely to place at early cosmic epochs, and possible observational tests of these scenarios.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abel T, Bryan GL, Norman ML (2000) The formation and fragmentation of primordial molecular clouds. Astrophys J 540: 39–44. doi:10.1086/309295 astro-ph/0002135

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Abramowicz MA, Lasota JP (1980) Spin-up of black holes by thick accretion disks. Acta Astron 30: 35–39

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Abramowicz MA, Czerny B, Lasota JP, Szuszkiewicz E (1988) Slim accretion disks. Astrophys J 332: 646–658. doi:10.1086/166683

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ajello M, Costamante L, Sambruna RM, Gehrels N, Chiang J, Rau A, Escala A, Greiner J, Tueller J, Wall JV, Mushotzky RF (2009) The evolution of swift/BAT blazars and the origin of the MeV background. Astrophys J 699: 603–625. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/699/1/603 0905.0472

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Alcock C, Allsman RA, Alves DR, Axelrod TS, Becker AC, Bennett DP, Cook KH, Dalal N, Drake AJ, Freeman KC, Geha M, Griest K, Lehner MJ, Marshall SL, Minniti D, Nelson CA, Peterson BA, Popowski P, Pratt MR, Quinn PJ, Stubbs CW, Sutherland W, Tomaney AB, Vandehei T, Welch D (2000) The MACHO project: microlensing results from 5.7 years of large magellanic cloud observations. Astrophys J 542: 281–307. doi:10.1086/309512 arXiv:astro-ph/0001272

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Aller MC, Richstone D (2002) The cosmic density of massive black holes from galaxy velocity dispersions. Astron J 124: 3035–3041. doi:10.1086/344484

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Arun KG, Babak S, Berti E, Cornish N, Cutler C, Gair J, Hughes SA, Iyer BR, Lang RN, Mandel I, Porter EK, Sathyaprakash BS, Sinha S, Sintes AM, Trias M, VanDen Broeck C, Volonteri M (2009) Massive black-hole binary inspirals: results from the LISA parameter estimation taskforce. Classical and Quantum Gravity 26(9): 094,027. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/26/9/094027 811–1011

    Google Scholar 

  • Barkat Z, Rakavy G, Sack N (1967) Dynamics of Supernova Explosion Resulting from Pair Formation. Physical Review Letters 18: 379–381. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.18.379

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Barth AJ, Martini P, Nelson CH, Ho LC (2003) Iron emission in the z = 6. Quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3. 4. Astrophys J Lett 594: L95–L98. doi:10.1086/378735

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Barth AJ, Ho LC, Rutledge RE, Sargent WLW (2004) POX 52: A Dwarf Seyfert 1 galaxy with an intermediate-mass black hole. Astrophys J 607: 90–102. doi:10.1086/383302 astro-ph/0402110

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgarte TW, Shapiro SL (1999) Evolution of rotating supermassive stars to the onset of collapse. Astrophys J 526: 941–952. doi:10.1086/308006 arXiv:astro-ph/9909237

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Begelman MC (1979) Can a spherically accreting black hole radiate very near the Eddington limit. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 187: 237–251

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Begelman MC (2009) Evolution of supermassive stars as a pathway to black hole formation. ArXiv e-prints 0910.4398

  • Begelman MC, Meier DL (1982) Thick accretion disks—self-similar, supercritical models. Astrophys J 253: 873–896. doi:10.1086/159688

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Begelman MC, Rees MJ (1978) The fate of dense stellar systems. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 185: 847–860

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Begelman MC, Shlosman I (2009) Angular momentum transfer and lack of fragmentation in self-gravitating accretion flows. Astrophys J Lett 702: L5–L8. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/702/1/L5 0904.4247

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Begelman MC, Volonteri M, Rees MJ (2006) Formation of supermassive black holes by direct collapse in pre-galactic haloes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 370: 289–298. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10467.x astro-ph/0602363

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Begelman MC, Rossi EM, Armitage PJ (2008) Quasi-stars: accreting black holes inside massive envelopes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 387: 1649–1659. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13344.x 0711.4078

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Berti E, Cardoso V, Will CM (2006) Gravitational-wave spectroscopy of massive black holes with the space interferometer LISA. Phys Rev D 73(6): 030–064. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.73.064030 arXiv:gr-qc/0512160

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Blandford RD, Begelman MC (1999) On the fate of gas accreting at a low rate on to a black hole. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 303: L1–L5. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02358.x arXiv:astro-ph/9809083

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Blandford RD, Begelman MC (2004) Two-dimensional adiabatic flows on to a black hole—I. Fluid accretion. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 349: 68–86. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07425.x arXiv:astro-ph/0306184

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bond JR, Arnett WD, Carr BJ (1984) The evolution and fate of very massive objects. Astrophys J 280: 825–847. doi:10.1086/162057

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bovill MS, Ricotti M (2009) Pre-reionization fossils, ultra-faint dwarfs, and the missing galactic satellite problem. Astrophys J 693: 1859–1870. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/693/2/1859 0806.2340

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bromm V, Loeb A (2003) Formation of the first supermassive black holes. Astrophys J 596: 34–46. doi:10.1086/377529 astro-ph/0212400

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bromm V, Coppi PS, Larson RB (1999) Forming the first stars in the universe: the fragmentation of primordial gas. Astrophys J Lett 527: L5–L8. doi:10.1086/312385 astro-ph/9910224

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bromm V, Coppi PS, Larson RB (2002) The formation of the first stars. I. the primordial star-forming cloud. Astrophys J 564: 23–51. doi:10.1086/323947 astro-ph/0102503

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bullock JS, Dekel A, Kolatt TS, Kravtsov AV, Klypin AA, Porciani C, Primack JR (2001) A universal angular momentum profile for galactic halos. Astrophys J 555: 240–257. doi:10.1086/321477 astro-ph/0011001

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Carr BJ (2003) Primordial black holes as a probe of cosmology and high energy physics. In: Giulini D, Kiefer C, Laemmerzahl C (eds) Quantum gravity: from theory to experimental search, lecture notes in physics, vol 631. Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp 301–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr BJ, Bond JR, Arnett WD (1984) Cosmological consequences of population III stars. Astrophys J 277: 445–469. doi:10.1086/161713

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Clark PC, Glover SCO, Klessen RS (2008) The first stellar cluster. Astrophys J 672: 757–764. doi:10.1086/524187 arXiv:0706.0613

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Côté P, Piatek S, Ferrarese L, Jordán A, Merritt D, Peng EW, Haşegan M, Blakeslee JP, Mei S, West MJ, Milosavljević M, Tonry JL (2006) The ACS virgo cluster survey VIII. The nuclei of early-type galaxies. Astrophys J Suppl 165: 57–94. doi:10.1086/504042 arXiv:astro-ph/0603252

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Decarli R, Gavazzi G, Arosio I, Cortese L, Boselli A, Bonfanti C, Colpi M (2007) The census of nuclear activity of late-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 381: 136–150. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12208.x arXiv:0707.0999

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Devecchi B, Volonteri M (2009) Formation of the first nuclear clusters and massive black holes at high redshift. Astrophys J 694: 302–313. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/694/1/302 0810.1057

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Diemand J, Kuhlen M, Madau P (2007) Formation and evolution of galaxy dark matter halos and their substructure. Astrophys J 667: 859–877. doi:10.1086/520573 arXiv:astro-ph/0703337

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkstra M, Haiman Z, Mesinger A, Wyithe JSB (2008) Fluctuations in the high-redshift Lyman-Werner background: close halo pairs as the origin of supermassive black holes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 391: 1961–1972. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14031.x 0810.0014

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ebisuzaki T, Makino J, Tsuru TG, Funato Y, Portegies Zwart S, Hut P, McMillan S, Matsushita S, Matsumoto H, Kawabe R (2001) Missing link found? The “runaway” path to supermassive black holes. Astrophys J Lett 562: L19–L22. doi:10.1086/338118 astro-ph/0106252

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenstein DJ, Loeb A (1995) Origin of quasar progenitors from the collapse of low-spin cosmological perturbations. Astrophys J 443: 11–17. doi:10.1086/175498 arXiv:astro-ph/9401016

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Eke VR, Cole S, Frenk CS (1996) Cluster evolution as a diagnostic for omega. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 282: 263–280 arXiv:astro-ph/9601088

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Elvis M, Risaliti G, Zamorani G (2002) Most supermassive black holes must be rapidly rotating. Astrophys J Lett 565: L75–L77. doi:10.1086/339197 arXiv:astro-ph/0112413

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Fan X et al (2001) A survey of z > 5.8 quasars in the sloan digital sky survey. I. discovery of three new quasars and the spatial density of luminous quasars at z ~6. Astron J 122: 2833–2849. doi:10.1086/324111

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Fan X et al (2001) High-redshift quasars found in sloan digital sky survey commissioning data. IV. luminosity function from the fall equatorial stripe sample. Astron J 121: 54–65. doi:10.1086/318033

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Fan X et al (2004) A survey of z > 5.7 quasars in the sloan digital sky survey. III. discovery of five additional quasars. Astron J 128: 515–522. doi:10.1086/422434

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrarese L, Ford H (2005) Supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei: past, present and future research. Space Sci Rev 116: 523–624. doi:10.1007/s11214-005-3947-6 astro-ph/0411247

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrarese L, Merritt D (2000) A fundamental relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. Astrophys J 539: L9–L12. doi:10.1086/312838

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrarese L, Côté P, Dalla Bontà E, Peng EW, Merritt D, Jordán A, Blakeslee JP, Haşegan M, Mei S, Piatek S, Tonry JL, West MJ (2006) A fundamental relation between compact stellar nuclei, supermassive black holes, and their host galaxies. Astrophys J Lett 644: L21–L24. doi:10.1086/505388 astro-ph/0603840

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Freese K, Bodenheimer P, Spolyar D, Gondolo P (2008) Stellar structure of dark stars: a first phase of stellar evolution resulting from dark matter annihilation. Astrophys J Lett 685: L101–L104. doi:10.1086/592685 0806.0617

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Freise A, Chelkowski S, Hild S, Del Pozzo W, Perreca A, Vecchio A (2009) Triple Michelson interferometer for a third-generation gravitational wave detector. Class Quantum Gravity 26(8): 085,012. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/26/8/085012 804–1036

    Google Scholar 

  • Freitag M, Gürkan MA, Rasio FA (2006a) Runaway collisions in young star clusters—II. Numerical results. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 368: 141–161. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10096.x astro-ph/0503130

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Freitag M, Rasio FA, Baumgardt H (2006) Runaway collisions in young star clusters— I. Methods and tests. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 368: 121–140. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10095.x astro-ph/0503129

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Fryer CL, Woosley SE, Heger A (2001) Pair-instability supernovae, gravity waves, and gamma-ray transients. Astrophys J 550: 372–382. doi:10.1086/319719 astro-ph/0007176

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gaburov E, Lombardi J, Portegies Zwart S (2009) On the onset of runaway stellar collisions in dense star clusters—II. Hydrodynamics of three-body interactions. ArXiv e-prints 0904.0997

  • Gair JR, Mandel I, Miller MC, Volonteri M (2009) Exploring intermediate and massive black-hole binaries with the Einstein Telescope. ArXiv e-prints 0907.5450

  • Gallo E, Treu T, Jacob J, Woo J, Marshall PJ, Antonucci R (2008) AMUSE-Virgo I supermassive black holes in low-mass spheroids. Astrophys J 680: 154–168. doi:10.1086/588012 0711.2073

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gao L, Yoshida N, Abel T, Frenk CS, Jenkins A, Springel V (2007) The first generation of stars in the Λ cold dark matter cosmology. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 378: 449–468. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11814.x arXiv:astro-ph/0610174

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gebhardt K, Bender R, Bower G, Dressler A, Faber SM, Filippenko AV, Green R, Grillmair C, Ho LC, Kormendy J, Lauer TR, Magorrian J, Pinkney J, Richstone D, Tremaine S (2000) A relationship between nuclear black hole mass and galaxy velocity dispersion. Astrophys J 539: L13–L16. doi:10.1086/312840 astro-ph/0006289

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gebhardt K, Lauer TR, Kormendy J, Pinkney J, Bower GA, Green R, Gull T, Hutchings JB, Kaiser ME, Nelson CH, Richstone D, Weistrop D (2001) M33: A galaxy with no supermassive black hole. Astron J 122: 2469–2476. doi:10.1086/323481 arXiv:astro-ph/0107135

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghez AM, Salim S, Hornstein SD, Tanner A, Lu JR, Morris M, Becklin EE, Duchêne G (2005) Stellar orbits around the galactic center black hole. Astrophys J 620: 744–757. doi:10.1086/427175 arXiv:astro-ph/0306130

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghisellini G, Foschini L, Volonteri M, Ghirlanda G, Haardt F, Burlon D, Tavecchio F (2009) The blazar S5 0014+813: a real or apparent monster. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 399: L24–L28. doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2009.00716.x 0906.0575

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Glover SCO, Clark PC, Greif TH, Johnson JL, Bromm V, Klessen RS, Stacy A (2008) Open questions in the study of population III star formation. In: Hunt LK, Madden S, Schneider R (eds) IAU symposium, vol 255, pp 3–17. doi:10.1017/S1743921308024526

  • Gnedin NY, Kravtsov AV (2006) Fossils of reionization in the local group. Astrophys J 645: 1054–1061. doi:10.1086/504404 arXiv:astro-ph/0601401

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Greene JE, Ho LC (2007) The mass function of active black holes in the local universe. Astrophys J 667: 131–148. doi:10.1086/520497 0705.0020

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Greif TH, Johnson JL, Klessen RS, Bromm V (2008) The first galaxies: assembly, cooling and the onset of turbulence. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 387: 1021–1036. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13326.x 0803.2237

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gruzinov AV (1998) Radiative efficiency of collisionless accretion. Astrophys J 501: 787. doi:10.1086/305845 arXiv:astro-ph/9710132

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gültekin K, Richstone DO, Gebhardt K, Lauer TR, Tremaine S, Aller MC, Bender R, Dressler A, Faber SM, Filippenko AV, Green R, Ho LC, Kormendy J, Magorrian J, Pinkney J, Siopis C (2009) The M–σ and M–L relations in galactic bulges, and determinations of their intrinsic scatter. Astrophys J 698: 198–221. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/698/1/198 0903.4897

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gürkan MA, Freitag M, Rasio FA (2004) Formation of massive black holes in dense star clusters. I. mass segregation and core collapse. Astrophys J 604: 632–652. doi:10.1086/381968 astro-ph/0308449

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gürkan MA, Fregeau JM, Rasio FA (2006) Massive black hole binaries from collisional runaways. Astrophys J Lett 640: L39–L42. doi:10.1086/503295 astro-ph/0512642

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Haehnelt MG, Rees MJ (1993) The formation of nuclei in newly formed galaxies and the evolution of the quasar population. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 263: 168–178

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Haiman Z (2004) Constraints from gravitational recoil on the growth of supermassive black holes at high redshift. Astrophys J 613: 36–40. doi:10.1086/422910

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Häring N, Rix HW (2004) On the black hole mass-bulge mass relation. Astrophys J Lett 604: L89–L92. doi:10.1086/383567 arXiv:astro-ph/0402376

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Hawking S (1971) Gravitationally collapsed objects of very low mass. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 152: 75

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Heger A, Fryer CL, Woosley SE, Langer N, Hartmann DH (2003) How massive single stars end their life. Astrophys J 591: 288–300. doi:10.1086/375341 astro-ph/0212469

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ho LC (2008) Nuclear activity in nearby galaxies. Annu Rev Astron Astrophys 46: 475–539. doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.45.051806.110546 0803.2268

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins PF, Richards GT, Hernquist L (2007) An observational determination of the bolometric quasar luminosity function. Astrophys J 654: 731–753. doi:10.1086/509629 arXiv:astro-ph/0605678

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle F, Fowler WA (1963) On the nature of strong radio sources. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 125: 169

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes SA (2002) Untangling the merger history of massive black holes with LISA. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 331: 805–816. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05247.x astro-ph/0108483

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Iocco F (2008) Dark matter capture and annihilation on the first stars: preliminary estimates. Astrophys J Lett 677: L1–L4. doi:10.1086/587959 0802.0941

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson JL, Bromm V (2007) The aftermath of the first stars: massive black holes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 374: 1557–1568. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11275.x arXiv:astro-ph/0605691

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Khlopov MY, Rubin SG, Sakharov AS (2005) Primordial structure of massive black hole clusters. Astropart Phys 23: 265–277. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2004.12.002 arXiv:astro-ph/0401532

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Kormendy J, Bender R, Richstone D, Ajhar EA, Dressler A, Faber SM, Gebhardt K, Grillmair C, Lauer TR, Tremaine S (1996) Hubble space telescope spectroscopic evidence for a 2 billion solar masses black hole in NGC 3115. ApJ 459:L57+. doi:10.1086/309950

  • Kormendy J, Fisher DB, Cornell ME, Bender R (2009) Structure and formation of elliptical and spheroidal galaxies. ApJS 182: 216–309. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/182/1/216 0810.1681

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Koushiappas SM, Bullock JS, Dekel A (2004) Massive black hole seeds from low angular momentum material. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 354: 292–304. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.08190.x astro-ph/0311487

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Kudritzki RP, Puls J (2000) Winds from hot stars. Annu Rev Astron Astrophys 38: 613–666. doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.38.1.613

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Lacey C, Cole S (1993) Merger rates in hierarchical models of galaxy formation. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 262: 627–649

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Lodato G, Natarajan P (2006) Supermassive black hole formation during the assembly of pre-galactic discs. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 371: 1813–1823. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10801.x astro-ph/0606159

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Loeb A, Rasio FA (1994) Collapse of primordial gas clouds and the formation of quasar black holes. Astrophys J 432: 52–61. doi:10.1086/174548 astro-ph/9401026

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Madau P, Rees MJ (2001) Massive black holes as population III remnants. Astrophys J Lett 551: L27–L30. doi:10.1086/319848

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Magorrian J, Tremaine S, Richstone D, Bender R, Bower G, Dressler A, Faber SM, Gebhardt K, Green R, Grillmair C, Kormendy J, Lauer T (1998) The demography of massive dark objects in galaxy centers. Astron J 115: 2285–2305. doi:10.1086/300353

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Majewski SR, Frinchaboy PM, Kunkel WE, Link R, Muñoz RR, Ostheimer JC, Palma C, Patterson RJ, Geisler D (2005) Exploring halo substructure with giant stars. VI. extended distributions of giant stars around the carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy: how reliable are they? Astron J 130: 2677–2700. doi:10.1086/444535 arXiv:astro-ph/0503627

    Google Scholar 

  • Marconi A, Hunt LK (2003) The relation between black hole mass, bulge mass, and near-infrared luminosity. Astrophys J Lett 589: L21–L24. doi:10.1086/375804 arXiv:astro-ph/0304274

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Marconi A, Risaliti G, Gilli R, Hunt LK, Maiolino R, Salvati M (2004) Local supermassive black holes, relics of active galactic nuclei and the X-ray background. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 351: 169–185. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07765.x

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Mateo M (1998) Dwarf galaxies of the local group. Annu Rev Astron Astrophys 36: 435–506

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • McKee CF, Tan JC (2008) The formation of the first stars. II. radiative feedback processes and implications for the initial mass function. Astrophys J 681: 771–797. doi:10.1086/587434 0711.1377

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Merloni A, Heinz S (2008) A synthesis model for AGN evolution: supermassive black holes growth and feedback modes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 388: 1011–1030. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13472.x 0805.2499

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Merloni A, Rudnick G, Di Matteo T (2004) Tracing the cosmological assembly of stars and supermassive black holes in galaxies. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 354: L37–L42. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.08382.x

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Merritt D, Ferrarese L, Joseph CL (2001) No supermassive black hole in M33? Science 293: 1116–1119. doi:10.1126/science.1063896 arXiv:astro-ph/0107359

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Miller MC, Hamilton DP (2002) Production of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 330: 232–240. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05112.x arXiv:astro-ph/0106188

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Milosavljević M, Couch SM, Bromm V (2009) Accretion onto intermediate-mass black holes in dense protogalactic clouds. Astrophys J Lett 696: L146–L149. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/L146 0812.2516

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Mo HJ, Mao S, White SDM (1998) The formation of galactic discs. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 295: 319–336

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Narayan R, Igumenshchev IV, Abramowicz MA (2000) Self-similar accretion flows with convection. Astrophys J 539:798–808. doi:10.1086/309268, arXiv:astro-ph/9912449

    Google Scholar 

  • Navarro JF, Frenk CS, White SDM (1997) A universal density profile from hierarchical clustering. Astrophys J 490: 493. doi:10.1086/304888

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Oh SP, Haiman Z (2002) Second-generation objects in the universe: radiative cooling and collapse of halos with virial temperatures above 104 K. Astrophys J 569: 558–572. doi:10.1086/339393

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Omukai K, Nishi R (1998) Formation of primordial protostars. Astrophys J 508: 141–150. doi:10.1086/306395 arXiv:astro-ph/9811308

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Omukai K, Schneider R, Haiman Z (2008) Can supermassive black holes form in metal-enriched high-redshift protogalaxies. Astrophys J 686: 801–814. doi:10.1086/591636 0804.3141

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Page DN, Hawking SW (1976) Gamma rays from primordial black holes. Astrophys J 206: 1–7. doi:10.1086/154350

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Palla et al (2002) Physics of star formation in galaxies. Saas-Fee Advanced Course 29. Lecture Notes 1999, Les Diablerets, Switzerland, 22–29 March 1999. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy. In: Maeder A, Meynet G (eds), Physics and astronomy online library. Springer, Berlin, pp 9–133

  • Peacock, JA (eds) (1999) Cosmological physics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, p 704

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Pelupessy FI, Di Matteo T, Ciardi B (2007) How rapidly do supermassive black hole “seeds” grow at early times? ArXiv Astrophysics e-prints, astro-ph/0703773, astro-ph/0703773

  • Portegies Zwart SF, McMillan SLW (2002) The runaway growth of intermediate-mass black holes in dense star clusters. Astrophys J 576: 899–907. doi:10.1086/341798 astro-ph/0201055

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Portegies Zwart SF, Makino J, McMillan SLW, Hut P (1999) Star cluster ecology. III. Runaway collisions in young compact star clusters. Astron Astrophys 348: 117–126 arXiv:astro-ph/9812006

    Google Scholar 

  • Portegies Zwart SF, Baumgardt H, Hut P, Makino J, McMillan SLW (2004) Formation of massive black holes through runaway collisions in dense young star clusters. Nature 428: 724–726. doi:10.1038/nature02448 astro-ph/0402622

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Quataert E, Gruzinov A (2000) Convection-dominated accretion flows. Astrophys J 539: 809–814. doi:10.1086/309267 arXiv:astro-ph/9912440

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Reed D, Governato F, Quinn T, Gardner J, Stadel J, Lake G (2005) Dark matter subhaloes in numerical simulations. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 359: 1537–1548. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09020.x arXiv:astro-ph/0406034

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Rees MJ (1978) Structure and properties of nearby galaxies. Proceedings of the symposium, bad Muenstereifel, West Germany, August 22–26, 1977 (A79-13481 03-90). D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht, pp 237–242; Discussion, pp 242–244

  • Regan JA, Haehnelt MG (2009) Pathways to massive black holes and compact star clusters in pre-galactic dark matter haloes with virial temperatures >10000K. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 396: 343–353. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14579.x 0810.2802

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ricotti M, Ostriker JP, Mack KJ (2008) Effect of primordial black holes on the cosmic microwave background and cosmological parameter estimates. Astrophys J 680: 829–845. doi:10.1086/587831 0709.0524

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ripamonti E, Haardt F, Ferrara A, Colpi M (2002) Radiation from the first forming stars. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 334: 401–418. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05516.x arXiv:astro-ph/0107095

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ripamonti E, Mapelli M, Ferrara A (2007) The impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on the formation of the first structures. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 375: 1399–1408. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11402.x arXiv:astro-ph/0606483

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Saijo M, Baumgarte TW, Shapiro SL, Shibata M (2002) Collapse of a rotating supermassive star to a supermassive black hole: post-newtonian simulations. Astrophys J 569: 349–361. doi:10.1086/339268 astro-ph/0202112

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Salvaterra R, Haardt F, Volonteri M (2007) Unresolved X-ray background: clues on galactic nuclear activity at z > 6. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 374: 761–768. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11195.x astro-ph/0610329

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Santoro F, Shull JM (2006) Critical metallicity and fine-structure emission of primordial gas enriched by the first stars. Astrophys J 643: 26–37. doi:10.1086/501518 astro-ph/0509101

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider R, Omukai K, Inoue AK, Ferrara A (2006) Fragmentation of star-forming clouds enriched with the first dust. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 369: 1437–1444. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10391.x arXiv:astro-ph/0603766

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Schödel R, Ott T, Genzel R, Eckart A, Mouawad N, Alexander T (2003) Stellar dynamics in the central arcsecond of our galaxy. Astrophys J 596: 1015–1034. doi:10.1086/378122 arXiv:astro-ph/0306214

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Sesana A, Volonteri M, Haardt F (2007) The imprint of massive black hole formation models on the LISA data stream. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 377: 1711–1716. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11734.x arXiv:astro-ph/0701556

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro SL (2004) Formation of supermassive black holes: simulations in general relativity. In: Ho LC (ed) Coevolution of black holes and galaxies, from the Carnegie Observatories Centennial Symposia. Published by Cambridge University Press, as part of the Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series. p 103

  • Shapiro SL (2005) Spin, accretion, and the cosmological growth of supermassive black holes. Astrophys J 620: 59–68. doi:10.1086/427065

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Sheth RK, Tormen G (1999) Large-scale bias and the peak background split. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 308: 119–126

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Shibata M, Shapiro SL (2002) Collapse of a rotating supermassive star to a supermassive black hole: fully relativistic simulations. Astrophys J Lett 572: L39–L43. doi:10.1086/341516 arXiv:astro-ph/0205091

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Shlosman I, Frank J, Begelman MC (1989) Bars within bars—a mechanism for fuelling active galactic nuclei. Nature 338: 45–47. doi:10.1038/338045a0

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Soltan A (1982) Masses of quasars. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 200: 115–122

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Spaans M, Silk J (2006) Pregalactic black hole formation with an atomic hydrogen equation of state. Astrophys J 652: 902–906. doi:10.1086/508444 arXiv:astro-ph/0601714

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Spitzer L (1987) Dynamical evolution of globular clusters. Princeton University Press, Princeton, p 191

    Google Scholar 

  • Spolyar D, Freese K, Gondolo P (2008) Dark matter and the first stars: a new phase of stellar evolution. Phys Rev Lett 100(5): 051,101. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.051101 0705.0521

    Google Scholar 

  • Springel V, Wang J, Vogelsberger M, Ludlow A, Jenkins A, Helmi A, Navarro JF, Frenk CS, White SDM (2008) The aquarius project: the subhaloes of galactic haloes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 391: 1685–1711. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14066.x 0809.0898

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Stacy A, Greif TH, Bromm V (2009) The first stars: formation of binaries and small multiple systems. ArXiv e-prints 0908.0712

  • Tan JC, McKee CF (2004) The formation of the first stars. I. Mass infall rates, accretion disk structure, and protostellar evolution. Astrophys J 603: 383–400. doi:10.1086/381490 arXiv:astro-ph/0307414

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka T, Haiman Z (2009) The assembly of supermassive black holes at high redshifts. Astrophys J 696: 1798–1822. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/1798 0807.4702

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Tegmark M, Silk J, Rees MJ, Blanchard A, Abel T, Palla F (1997) How small were the first cosmological objects. Astrophys J 474: 1. doi:10.1086/303434 arXiv:astro-ph/9603007

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Tisserand P, Le Guillou L, Afonso C, Albert JN, Andersen J, Ansari R, Aubourg É, Bareyre P, Beaulieu JP, Charlot X, Coutures C, Ferlet R, Fouqué P, Glicenstein JF, Goldman B, Gould A, Graff D, Gros M, Haissinski J, Hamadache C, de Kat J, Lasserre T, Lesquoy É, Loup C, Magneville C, Marquette JB, Maurice É, Maury A, Milsztajn A, Moniez M, Palanque-Delabrouille N, Perdereau O, Rahal YR, Rich J, Spiro M, Vidal-Madjar A, Vigroux L, Zylberajch S, The EROS-2 Collaboration (2007) Limits on the macho content of the galactic halo from the eros-2 survey of the magellanic clouds. Astron Astrophys 469:387–404. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20066017, arXiv:astro-ph/0607207

    Google Scholar 

  • Tremaine S, Gebhardt K, Bender R, Bower G, Dressler A, Faber SM, Filippenko AV, Green R, Grillmair C, Ho LC, Kormendy J, Lauer TR, Magorrian J, Pinkney J, Richstone D (2002) The slope of the black hole mass versus velocity dispersion correlation. Astrophys J 574: 740–753. doi:10.1086/341002

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Trenti M, Stiavelli M, Michael Shull J (2009) Metal-free Gas supply at the edge of reionization: late-epoch population III star formation. Astrophys J 700: 1672–1679. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/1672 0905.4504

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Turk MJ, Abel T, O’Shea B (2009) The formation of population III binaries from cosmological initial conditions. Science 325: 601. doi:10.1126/science.1173540 0907.2919

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Valluri M, Ferrarese L, Merritt D, Joseph CL (2005) The low end of the supermassive black hole mass function: constraining the mass of a nuclear black hole in ngc 205 via stellar kinematics. Astrophys J 628: 137–152. doi:10.1086/430752 arXiv:astro-ph/0502493

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • van den Bosch FC, Abel T, Croft RAC, Hernquist L, White SDM (2002) The angular momentum of gas in protogalaxies. I. implications for the formation of disk galaxies. Astrophys J 576: 21–35. doi:10.1086/341619 astro-ph/0201095

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Wassenhove S, Volonteri M, Walker MG, Gair JR (2010) Massive black holes lurking in Milky Way satellites. ArXiv e-prints 1001.5451

  • Vernaleo JC, Reynolds CS (2006) AGN feedback and cooling flows: problems with simple hydrodynamic models. Astrophys J 645: 83–94. doi:10.1086/504029 arXiv:astro-ph/0511501

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Volonteri M, Gnedin N (2009) Relative role of stars and quasars in cosmic reionization. ArXiv e-prints 0905.0144

  • Volonteri M, Natarajan P (2009) Journey to the M_BH–sigma relation: the fate of low mass black holes in the Universe. ArXiv e-prints 0903.2262

  • Volonteri M, Rees MJ (2005) Rapid growth of high-redshift black holes. Astrophys J 633: 624–629. doi:10.1086/466521

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Volonteri M, Rees MJ (2006) Quasars at z=6: the survival of the fittest. Astrophys J 650: 669–678. doi:10.1086/507444 arXiv:astro-ph/0607093

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Volonteri M, Haardt F, Madau P (2003) The assembly and merging history of supermassive black holes in hierarchical models of galaxy formation. Astrophys J 582: 559–573. doi:10.1086/344675

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Volonteri M, Haardt F, Gültekin K (2008) Compact massive objects in Virgo galaxies: the black hole population. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 384: 1387–1392. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12911.x arXiv:0710.5770

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Volonteri M, Lodato G, Natarajan P (2008) The evolution of massive black hole seeds. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 383: 1079–1088. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12589.x arXiv:0709.0529

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Walker MG, Mateo M, Olszewski EW (2009) Stellar velocities in the carina, fornax, sculptor, and sextans dsph galaxies: data from the magellan/mmfs survey. Astron J 137: 3100–3108. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/2/3100 0811.0118

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Walker MG, Mateo M, Olszewski EW (2009) Stellar velocities in the carina, fornax, sculptor, and sextans dsph galaxies: data from the Magellan/MMFS survey. Astron J 137: 3100–3108. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/2/3100 0811.0118

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Walter M, Carilli C, Bertoldi F, Menten K, Cox P, Lo KY, Fan X, Strauss MA (2003) Resolved molecular gas in a quasar host galaxy at redshift z=6.42. Astrophys J Lett 615: L17–L20. doi:10.1086/426017

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Wehner EH, Harris WE (2006) From supermassive black holes to dwarf elliptical nuclei: a mass continuum. Astrophys J Lett 644: L17–L20. doi:10.1086/505387 astro-ph/0603801

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • White SDM, Rees MJ (1978) Core condensation in heavy halos—a two-stage theory for galaxy formation and clustering. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 183: 341–358

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Willott CJ, McLure RJ, Jarvis MJ (2003) A 3 billion solar masses black hole in the quasar SDSS J1148+5251 at z=6. Astrophys J Lett 41(587): L15–L18. doi:10.1086/375126

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Willott CJ, Percival WJ, McLure RJ, Crampton D, Hutchings JB, Jarvis MJ, Sawicki M, Simard L (2005) Imaging of SDSS z>6 quasar fields: gravitational lensing, companion galaxies, and the host dark matter halos. Astrophys J 626: 657–665. doi:10.1086/430168

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Wise JH, Turk MJ, Abel T (2008) Resolving the formation of protogalaxies. II. Central gravitational collapse. Astrophys J 682: 745–757. doi:10.1086/588209 0710.1678

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Woosley SE, Weaver TA (1986) The physics of supernova explosions. Annu Rev Astron Astrophys 24: 205–253. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.24.090186.001225

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Yoshida N, Omukai K, Hernquist L, Abel T (2006) Formation of primordial stars in a ΛCDM universe. Astrophys J 652: 6–25. doi:10.1086/507978 arXiv:astro-ph/0606106

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Yu Q, Tremaine S (2002) Observational constraints on growth of massive black holes. Mon Notices R Astron Soc 335: 965–976. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05532.x

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Zel’Dovich YB, Novikov ID (1967) The hypothesis of cores retarded during expansion and the hot cosmological model. Sov Astron 10: 602

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Zeldovich YB, Novikov ID (1971) Relativistic astrophysics. vol 1: stars and relativity. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang W, Woosley SE, Heger A (2008) Fallback and black hole production in massive stars. Astrophys J 679: 639–654. doi:10.1086/526404 arXiv:astro-ph/0701083

    ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomy Department, University of Michigan, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Marta Volonteri

Authors
  1. Marta Volonteri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marta Volonteri.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Volonteri, M. Formation of supermassive black holes. Astron Astrophys Rev 18, 279–315 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00159-010-0029-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00159-010-0029-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation