Separating Accretion and Mergers in the Cosmic Growth of Black Holes with X-ray and Gravitational Wave Observations

Understand

Black holes across a broad range of masses play a key role in the evolution of galaxies.

• The initial seeds of black holes formed at $z \sim 30$ and grew over cosmic time by gas accretion and mergers.
• Using observational data for quasars and theoretical models for the hierarchical assembly of dark matter halos, we study the relative importance of gas accretion and mergers for black hole growth, as a function of redshift ($0<z<10$) and black hole mass ($ 10^3 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}} < M_{\bullet} < 10^{10} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$).
• We find that (i) growth by accretion is dominant in a large fraction of the parameter space, especially at $M_{\bullet} > 10^8 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and $z>6$; and (ii) growth by mergers is dominant at $M_{\bullet} < 10^5 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and $z>5.5$, and at $M_{\bullet} > 10^8 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and $z<2$.