The Assembly of the First Massive Black Holes Kohei Inayoshi,1 Eli Visbal,2 and Zolt´an Haiman3 1Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; email:
[email protected] 2Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606; email:
[email protected] 3Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027; email:
[email protected] Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 2019. Keywords 58:1{79 black holes, cosmology, first galaxies, active galactic nuclei, quasars https://doi.org/10.1146/(please add article doi) Abstract Copyright c 2019 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved 9 The existence of ∼10 M supermassive black holes (SMBHs) within the first billion year of the universe has stimulated numerous ideas for the prompt formation and rapid growth of BHs in the early universe. Here we review ways in which the seeds of massive BHs may have first assembled, how they may have subsequently grown as massive as 9 ∼10 M , and how multi-messenger observations could distinguish be- tween different SMBH assembly scenarios. We conclude the following: 9 • The ultra-rare ∼10 M SMBHs represent only the tip of the iceberg. Early BHs likely fill a continuum from stellar-mass (∼ 10 M ) to the super-massive (∼ 109) regime, reflecting a range of initial masses and growth histories. • Stellar-mass BHs were likely left behind by the first generation of stars at redshifts as high as ∼ 30, but their initial growth was typically stunted due to the shallow potential wells of their host galaxies. arXiv:1911.05791v1 [astro-ph.GA] 13 Nov 2019 • Conditions in some larger, metal-poor galaxies soon became conducive to the rapid formation and growth of massive `seed' holes, via gas accretion and by mergers in dense stellar clusters.