Massive Black Holes formation and evolution in cosmological environments

by Dr Daniele Spinoso (Università degli Studi dell'Insubria)

Thursday 23 Oct 2025, 11:30 → 12:30 Europe/Rome

Sala Jappelli (Osservatorio astronomico di Padova)

Recent observations of high-redshift luminous QSOs and faint AGN candidates, as well as the need to predict the outcome of future space-based gravitational wave experiments, motivate the development of detailed theoretical models which focus on the formation and evolution of massive black holes (MBHs). This talk will present recent results obtained with the L-GalaxiesBH (LGBH) semi-analytic model about the formation, evolution and dynamical interaction of MBHs. I will showcase the state-of-the art capabilities of LGBH by presenting its predictions for standard observables related to the evolution of MBHs (e.g. AGN luminosity function and MBH-Mstar correlations) as well as for ongoing and upcoming gravitational wave experiments (e.g. PTA collaborations and the LISA mission). In addition, I will focus on showing how LGBH can be used to study the cosmological evolution of light, intermediate-mass and heavy MBH-seeds, from their formation down to z=0. This will provide insights about the occurrence of these BH-seeding scenarios over cosmological scales, as well as the fate of their MBH descendants. Finally, I will show how LGBH can be used to contextualize and interpret the population of Little-Red-Dots recently unveiled by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This wide variety of applications and results are made possible by the comprehensive set of physical models featured by LGBH to describe the formation and evolution of MBHs, making it one of the most advanced numerical tools to date for this goal.

 

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https://unipd.zoom.us/j/85273198731?pwd=V1ZiNE9ZWUN4ZTdIUzJsTFo0Z3U2Zz09
Meeting ID: 852 7319 8731
Passcode: 208186