Black Holes during the Epoch of Reionization

Pietro Olmo Piana

Research output: ThesisThesis fully internal (DIV)

355 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this work, we study the co-evolution of central black holes and their hosts in the first billion year of the Universe. To this end, we have built Delphi, a model to simulate the formation, growth and evolution of galaxies and their central black holes, able to reproduce these observational constraints and at the same time to give us insights of yet unobserved properties. In particular, the open questions addressed in this thesis are the following: how can black holes grow so big in a relatively short timescale? How does this growth affect the host galaxies? Given the feedback process, is there a correlation between the physical properties of the black hole with those of the host galaxy? How does black hole growth depend on the size and mass of the host galaxy? Finding an answer to these questions will be important especially when looking at the future of Astronomy. Future space telescopes - like the James Webb Space Telescope, Athena, Lynx - will be able to directly observe the black hole population we have described here, and tell us what of our model works and what still needs to be refined, possibly bringing a better understanding of the exact role played by these supermassive black holes in our Universe.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution
  • University of Groningen
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Dayal, Pratika, Supervisor
  • Caputi, Karina, Co-supervisor
Award date25-Jun-2021
Place of Publication[Groningen]
Publisher
Print ISBNs978-94-6421-397-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

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