Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > The first Super Massive Black Holes

Electronic data

  • 1902.07982v1

    Rights statement: This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Stergios Amarantidis, José Afonso, Hugo Messias, Bruno Henriques, Andrew Griffin, Cedric Lacey, Claudia del P Lagos, Violeta Gonzalez-Perez, Yohan Dubois, Marta Volonteri, Israel Matute, Ciro Pappalardo, Yuxiang Qin, Ranga-Ram Chary, Ray P Norris; The first Super Massive Black Holes: indications from models for future observations, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz551

    Accepted author manuscript, 4.98 MB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

The first Super Massive Black Holes: indications from models for future observations

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Stergios Amarantidis
  • José Afonso
  • Hugo Messias
  • Bruno Henriques
  • Andrew Griffin
  • Cedric Lacey
  • Claudia del P. Lagos
  • Violeta Gonzalez-Perez
  • Yohan Dubois
  • Marta Volonteri
  • Israel Matute
  • Ciro Pappalardo
  • Yuxiang Qin
  • Ranga-Ram Chary
  • Ray P. Norris
Close
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/05/2019
<mark>Journal</mark>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Issue number2
Volume485
Number of pages16
Pages (from-to)2694–2709
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date26/02/19
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

We present an exploration of the expected detection of the earliest Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the Universe from state-of-art galaxy formation and evolution semi-analytic models and hydro-dynamical simulations. We estimate the number and radiative characteristics of Super Massive Black Holes (SMBHs) at $z\geq 6$, a redshift range that will be intensively explored by the next generation of telescopes, in particular in the radio through the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and at high energies with ESA's Athena X-ray Observatory. We find that Athena will be able to observe over 5000 AGN/$\rm deg^2$ at the Epoch of Re-ionization (EoR), $6\leq z \leq 10$. Similarly, for the same redshift range the models/simulations suggest that SKA will detect at least 400 AGN/$\rm deg^2$. Additionally, we stress the importance of the volume of the simulation box as well as the initial physical conditions of the models/simulations on their effect on the luminosity functions (LFs) and the creation of the most massive SMBHs that we currently observe at the EoR. Furthermore, following the evolution of the accretion mode of the SMBHs in each model/simulation, we show that, while the quasar dominates over the radio mode at the EoR, detection at radio wavelengths still reaches significant numbers even at the highest redshifts. Finally, we present the effect that the radiative efficiency has on the LFs by comparing results produced with a constant value for the radiative efficiency and more complex calculations based on the spin of each SMBH.

Bibliographic note

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Stergios Amarantidis, José Afonso, Hugo Messias, Bruno Henriques, Andrew Griffin, Cedric Lacey, Claudia del P Lagos, Violeta Gonzalez-Perez, Yohan Dubois, Marta Volonteri, Israel Matute, Ciro Pappalardo, Yuxiang Qin, Ranga-Ram Chary, Ray P Norris; The first Super Massive Black Holes: indications from models for future observations, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz551