Black holes billion times more massive than
our sun are common in the centres of
galaxies in the Universe. The research
of my group focuses on answering how black holes grow
super-massive and what their origin is.
Our
work shows that conditions in
the early Universe promote the formation of
seed black holes with up to a million solar
masses in one single catastrophic event. Such
seed black holes have an
easier time becoming super-massive on a short
time scale and could possibly explain the existence
of super-massive black holes in the first
billion years after the Big Bang.
Once seed black holes are in place their
growth initially is fuelled mainly by gas
infall
(Paper)
. The most massive of black holes
thereafter continue growing by merging with
other massive black holes releasing
gravitational waves during this process.