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arXiv · 1307.3289

Black Hole Demography: From scaling relations to models

Francesco Shankar
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Abstract

In this contributed paper I review our current knowledge of the local Black Hole (BH) scaling relations, and their impact on the determination of the local BH mass function. I particularly emphasize the remaining systematic uncertainties impinging upon a secure determination of the BH mass function and how progress can be made. I then review and discuss the evidence for a different time evolution for separate BH-galaxy scaling relations, and how these independent empirical evidences can be reconciled with the overall evolution of the structural properties of the host galaxies. I conclude discussing BH demography in the context of semi-empirical continuity accretion models, as well as more complex evolutionary models, emphasizing the general constraints we can set on them.

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Francesco Shankar. 2013-07-11. Black Hole Demography: From scaling relations to models. https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381%2F30%2F24%2F244001

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