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Register a new userSupermassive Black-Hole Growth Over Cosmic Time: Active Galaxy Demography, Physics, and Ecology from Chandra Surveys
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W.N. Brandt
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Extragalactic X-ray surveys over the past decade have dramatically improved understanding of the majority populations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) over most of the history of the Universe. Here we briefly highlight some of the exciting discoveries about AGN demography, physics, and ecology with a focus on results from Chandra. We also discuss some key unresolved questions and future prospects.
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We review results from cosmic X-ray surveys of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) over the past ~ 15 yr that have dramatically improved our understanding of growing supermassive black holes in the distant universe. First, we discuss the utility of such surveys for AGN investigations and the capabilities of the missions making these surveys, emphasizing Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR. Second, we briefly describe the main cosmic X-ray surveys, the essential roles of complementary multiwavelength data, and how AGNs are selected from these surveys. We then review key results from these surveys on the AGN population and its evolution (demographics), the physical processes operating in AGNs (physics), and the interactions between AGNs and their environments (ecology). We conclude by describing some significant unresolved questions and prospects for advancing the field.
The formation, accretion and growth of supermassive black holes in the early universe are investigated. The accretion rate ${dot M}$ is calculated using the Bondi accretion rate onto black holes. Starting with initial seed black holes with masses $M_{rm BH}sim 10^2-10^3M_{odot}$, the Bondi accretion rate can evolve into a supermassive black hole with masses $M_{rm BH}sim 10^9-10^{10}M_{odot}$ and with a young quasar lifetime $sim 10^5-10^6$ years by super-Eddington accretion.
Understanding the processes that drive galaxy formation and shape the observed properties of galaxies is one of the most interesting and challenging frontier problems of modern astrophysics. We now know that the evolution of galaxies is critically shaped by the energy injection from accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, it is unclear how exactly the physics of this feedback process affects galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, a major challenge is unraveling how the energy released near the SMBHs is distributed over nine orders of magnitude in distance throughout galaxies and their immediate environments. The best place to study the impact of SMBH feedback is in the hot atmospheres of massive galaxies, groups, and galaxy clusters, which host the most massive black holes in the Universe, and where we can directly image the impact of black holes on their surroundings. We identify critical questions and potential measurements that will likely transform our understanding of the physics of SMBH feedback and how it shapes galaxies, through detailed measurements of (i) the thermodynamic and velocity fluctuations in the intracluster medium (ICM) as well as (ii) the composition of the bubbles inflated by SMBHs in the centers of galaxy clusters, and their influence on the cluster gas and galaxy growth, using the next generation of high spectral and spatial resolution X-ray and microwave telescopes.
One of the main themes in extragalactic astronomy for the next decade will be the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. Many future observatories, including JWST, ALMA, GMT, TMT and E-ELT will intensively observe starlight over a broad redshift range, out to the dawn of the modern Universe when the first galaxies formed. It has, however, become clear that the properties and evolution of galaxies are intimately linked to the growth of their central black holes. Understanding the formation of galaxies, and their subsequent evolution, will therefore be incomplete without similarly intensive observations of the accretion light from supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. To make further progress, we need to chart the formation of typical SMBH at z>6, and their subsequent growth over cosmic time, which is most effectively achieved with X-ray observations. Recent technological developments in X-ray optics and instrumentation now bring this within our grasp, enabling capabilities fully matched to those expected from flagship observatories at longer wavelengths.
At the end of its life, a very massive star is expected to collapse into a black hole. The recent detection of an 85 Msun black hole from the gravitational wave event GW 190521 appears to present a fundamental problem as to how such heavy black holes exist above the approximately 50 Msun pair-instability limit where stars are expected to be blown to pieces with no remnant left. Using MESA, we show that for stellar models with non-extreme assumptions, 90..100 Msun stars at reduced metallicity (Z/Zsun < 0.1) can produce blue supergiant progenitors with core masses sufficiently small to remain below the fundamental pair-instability limit, yet at the same time lose an amount of mass via stellar winds that is small enough to end up in the range of an impossible 85 Msun black hole. The two key points are the proper consideration of core overshooting and stellar wind physics with an improved scaling of mass loss with iron (Fe) contents characteristic for the host galaxy metallicity. Our modelling provides a robust scenario that not only doubles the maximum black hole mass set by pair instability, but also allows us to probe the maximum stellar black hole mass as a function of metallicity and Cosmic time in a physically sound framework.
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