activity
20102026
most citedBlack hole formation in the early universe

229 citations · 2.8k across the 59 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

60 papers

astro-ph.GA2026

Magnetic fields in extreme primordial halos: turbulent collapse and implications for early quasar formation

V. B. Díaz, D. R. G. Schleicher, M. A. Latif +1

It is sometimes suggested that the most massive quasars at high redshift may have formed from rare high-sigma peaks in the cosmic density field. We explore here the evolution in a…

astro-ph.GA2026★ 3 cited

Constraints on dynamically-formed massive black holes in Little Red Dots from X-ray non-detections

M. Liempi, D. R. G. Schleicher, M. A. Latif +4

The existence of massive, compact galaxies (Little Red Dots, LRDs) at challenges early structure formation models, suggesting rapid stellar and black hole (BH) assembly.…

astro-ph.GA2025★ 12 cited

Massive black hole formation in Population III star clusters

B. Reinoso, M. A. Latif, D. R. G. Schleicher

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that challenge existing black hole (BH) formation models. These newly observed BHs…

astro-ph.CO2025

Massive black holes or stars first: the key is the residual cosmic electron fraction

Muhammad A. Latif, Sadegh Khochfar

Recent James Webb Space Telescope observations have unveiled that the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were in place at z 10, a few hundred Myrs after the Big Bang. Th…

astro-ph.GA2023

Radio Emission From a 10.1 Black Hole in UHZ1

Daniel J. Whalen, Muhammad A. Latif, Mar Mezcua

The recent discovery of a 4 10 M black hole (BH) in UHZ1 at 10.3, just 450 Myr after the big bang, suggests that the seeds of the first quasars may hav…

astro-ph.HE2023★ 6 cited

Magnetic braking during direct collapse black hole formation

Muhammad A. Latif, Dominik R. G. Schleicher

Magnetic fields are expected to be efficiently amplified during the formation of the first massive black holes via the small-scale dynamo and in the presence of strong accretion sh…

astro-ph.GA2023★ 12 cited

Radio Emission from the First Quasars at 6-15

Muhammad A. Latif, Daniel J. Whalen, Mar Mezcua

Nearly 300 quasars have now been found at 6, including nine at 7. They are thought to form from the collapse of supermassive primordial stars to 10 - 10 M$_{\od…

astro-ph.HE2022★ 13 cited

Role of magnetic fields in the formation of direct collapse black holes

Muhammad A. Latif, Dominik R. G. Schleicher, Sadegh Khochfar

Direct collapse black holes (DCBHs) are the leading candidates for the origin of the first supermassive black holes. However, the role of magnetic fields during their formation is…

astro-ph.IM2022★ 16 cited

A-SLOTH: Ancient Stars and Local Observables by Tracing Halos

Mattis Magg, Tilman Hartwig, Li-Hsin Chen +1

Galaxies are thought to reside inside of large gravitationally bound structures of dark matter, so-called haloes. While the smallest of these haloes host no or only a few stars, th…

astro-ph.GA2022★ 30 cited

Unveiling the contribution of Pop III stars in primeval galaxies at redshift

Shafqat Riaz, Tilman Hartwig, Muhammad A. Latif

Detection of the first stars has remained elusive so-far but their presence may soon be unveiled by upcoming JWST observations. Previous studies have not investigated the entire po…

astro-ph.GA2022★ 98 cited

Turbulent Cold Flows Gave Birth to the First Quasars

Muhammad A. Latif, Daniel J. Whalen, Sadegh Khochfar +2

How quasars powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang is still one of the outstanding problems in astrophysics 20 years after…

astro-ph.GA2022★ 61 cited

Public Release of A-SLOTH: Ancient Stars and Local Observables by Tracing Halos

Tilman Hartwig, Mattis Magg, Li-Hsin Chen +8

The semi-analytical model A-SLOTH (Ancient Stars and Local Observables by Tracing Halos) is the first public code that connects the formation of the first stars and galaxies to obs…

astro-ph.GA2022★ 41 cited

Origin of supermassive black holes in massive metal-poor protoclusters

D. R. G. Schleicher, B. Reinoso, M. Latif +6

While large numbers of supermassive black holes have been detected at z>6, their origin is still essentially unclear. Numerical simulations have shown that the conditions for the c…

astro-ph.GA2021★ 13 cited

Radio Power from Direct-Collapse Black Holes

Daniel J. Whalen, Mar Mezcua, Samuel J. Patrick +2

Direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) forming at 20 are currently the leading candidates for the seeds of the first quasars, over 200 of which have now been found at 6…

astro-ph.GA2021★ 87 cited

The Birth Mass Function of Pop III Stars

Muhammad A. Latif, Daniel Whalen, Sadegh Khochfar

Population III (Pop III) stars ended the cosmic Dark Ages and began early cosmological reionization and chemical enrichment. However, in spite of their importance to the evolution…

astro-ph.GA2020★ 34 cited

Radiation Hydrodynamical Simulations of the Birth of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in the First Galaxies

Muhammad A. Latif, Sadegh Khochfar, Dominik Schleicher +1

The leading contenders for the seeds of quasars are direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) forming in atomically-cooled halos at 20. However, the Lyman-Werner (LW) UV…

astro-ph.GA2020★ 11 cited

Formation of Pop II star clusters in the aftermath of a pair instability supernova

Muhammad A. Latif, Dominik Schleicher

Pop II stars formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang were key drivers of cosmic reionization and building blocks of high redshift galaxies. How and when these stars f…

astro-ph.GA2020★ 18 cited

Inception of a first quasar at cosmic dawn

Muhammad A. Latif, Sadegh Khochfar

Earliest quasars at the cosmic dawn are powered by mass accretion onto supermassive black holes of a billion solar masses. Massive black hole seeds forming through the direct colla…

astro-ph.GA2020★ 15 cited

Radio Power from a Direct-Collapse Black Hole in CR7

Daniel J. Whalen, Mar Mezcua, Avery Meiksin +2

The leading contenders for the seeds of the first quasars are direct collapse black holes (DCBHs) formed during catastrophic baryon collapse in atomically-cooled halos at …

astro-ph.GA2020★ 29 cited

The Birth of Binary Direct-Collapse Black Holes

Muhammad A. Latif, Sadegh Khochfar, Daniel Whalen

Supermassive primordial stars forming during catastrophic baryon collapse in atomically-cooling halos at 15 - 20 may be the origin of the first quasars in the universe. Ho…

astro-ph.GA2019★ 20 cited

UV regulated star formation in high-redshift galaxies

Muhammad A. Latif, Sadegh Khochfar

The first galaxies forming a few hundred million years after the Big Bang are the key drivers of cosmic evolution and ideal laboratories to study theories of galaxy formation. We h…

astro-ph.GA2019★ 14 cited

Intermittent fragmentation and statistical variations during gas collapse in magnetised atomic cooling haloes

Philipp Grete, Muhammad A. Latif, Dominik R. G. Schleicher +1

Observations reveal the presence of supermassive black holes (SMBH) as early as ~700 million years after the Big Bang. Their formation path is still subject to current debate. We e…

astro-ph.CO2018★ 21 cited

Black hole formation in the context of dissipative dark matter

M. A. Latif, A. Lupi, D. R. G. Schleicher +3

Black holes with masses of dwell in the centers of most galaxies, but their formation mechanisms are not well known. A subdominant dissipative component o…

astro-ph.GA2018★ 193 cited

Titans of the Early Universe: The Prato Statement on the Origin of the First Supermassive Black Holes

Tyrone E. Woods, Bhaskar Agarwal, Volker Bromm +30

In recent years, the discovery of massive quasars at z~7 has provided a striking challenge to our understanding of the origin and growth of supermassive black holes in the early Un…