Massive Black Holes: formation and evolution

Abstract

Supermassive black holes are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies. Observations have revealed us vast information on the population of local and distant black holes, but the detailed physical properties of these dark massive objects are still to be proven. Accretion of gas and black hole mergers play a fundamental role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole: mass and spin. We briefly review here the basic properties of the population of supermassive black holes, focusing on the still mysterious formation of the first massive black holes, and their evolution from early times to now.

review to appear in Proc. IAU Symp. 238, "Black Holes: from stars to galaxies - across the range of masses"