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Massive black holes: formation and evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Martin J. Rees  and
Marta Volonteri
Martin J. Rees
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK email: mjr@ast.cam.ac.uk
Marta Volonteri
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA email: martav@umich.edu
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Abstract

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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.

Keywords

Black hole physics – gravitation – radiation mechanisms: general

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