On the Prevalence of Super-Massive Black Holes over Cosmic Time

Abstract

We investigate the abundance of Super-Massive Black Hole (SMBH) seeds in primordial galaxy halos. We explore the assumption that dark matter halos outgrowing a critical halo mass M_c have some probability p of having spawned a SMBH seed. Current observations of local, intermediate-mass galaxies constrain these parameters: For $M_c=10^{11}{M}_{\odot }$, all halos must be seeded, but when adopting smaller M_c masses the seeding can be much less efficient. The constraints also put lower limits on the number density of black holes in the local and high-redshift Universe. Reproducing z~6 quasar space densities depends on their typical halo mass, which can be constrained by counting nearby Lyman Break Galaxies and Lyman Alpha Emitters. For both observables, our simulations demonstrate that single-field predictions are too diverse to make definitive statements, in agreement with mixed claims in the literature. If quasars are not limited to the most massive host halos, they may represent a tiny fraction (~10^-5) of the SMBH population. Finally, we produce a wide range of predictions for gravitational events from SMBH mergers. We define a new diagnostic diagram for LISA to measure both SMBH space density and the typical delay between halo merger and black hole merger. While previous works have explored specific scenarios, our results hold independent of the seed mechanism, seed mass, obscuration, fueling methods and duty cycle.

Accepted in ApJ

References in corpus (17)

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• UGC 4211: A Confirmed Dual Active Galactic Nucleus in the Local Universe at 230 pc Nuclear Separation
• Multi-flavour SMBH seeding and evolution in cosmological environments
• Dwarf AGNs from Variability for the Origins of Seeds (DAVOS): Intermediate-mass black hole demographics from optical synoptic surveys
• ALMA reveals large overdensity and strong clustering of galaxies in quasar environments at $z\sim 4$
• A hidden population of massive black holes in simulated dwarf galaxies
• High-redshift SMBHs can grow from stellar-mass seeds via chaotic accretion
• Classifying the full SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey using optical diagnostic diagrams: presentation of AGN catalogs in flexible apertures
• Feeding plankton to whales: high-redshift supermassive black holes from tiny black hole explosions
• Evolution of the mass relation between supermassive black holes and dark matter halos across the cosmic time
• The Diversity of Environments Around Luminous Quasars at Redshift $z\sim 6$