Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe

Understand

The emergence of the first black holes during the first billion years of cosmic history marks a key event in cosmology.

• Their formation is part of the overall process of ending the cosmic dark ages, when the first stars appeared in low-mass dark matter haloes about a few 100 million years after the Big Bang.
• The first stars, galaxies, and black holes transformed the Universe from its simple initial state into one of ever increasing complexity.
• We review recent progress on our emerging theoretical picture of how the first black holes appeared on the cosmic scene, and how they impacted the subsequent history of the Universe.