Quasar Mass Functions Across Cosmic Time

Abstract

I present mass functions of actively accreting black holes detected in different quasar surveys which in concert cover a wide range of cosmic history. I briefly address what we learn from these mass functions. I summarize the motivation for such a study and the methods by which we determine black hole masses.

9 pages, 6 figures, invited contribution to the 2009 IAU Symposium 267. This version has added arXiv info for a reference paper in press and comments on preliminary data presented in Figure 3 relative to the published contribution