2009/03/03 by K. Nandra, J. A. Aird, Nandra, K. +135
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0903.0547
8 pages, Science White paper submitted to Astro2010 Decadal survey. Supplementary information available at http://astro.imperial.ac.uk/research/ixo/smbh_growth.shtml
arxiv created 2009/03/03 · openalex publication_date 2009/03/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
One of the main themes in extragalactic astronomy for the next decade will be the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. Many future observatories, including JWST, ALMA, GMT, TMT and E-ELT will intensively observe starlight over a broad redshift range, out to the dawn of the modern Universe when the first galaxies formed. It has, however, become clear that the properties and evolution of galaxies are intimately linked to the growth of their central black holes. Understanding the formation of galaxies, and their subsequent evolution, will therefore be incomplete without similarly intensive observations of the accretion light from supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. To make further progress, we need to chart the formation of typical SMBH at z>6, and their subsequent growth over cosmic time, which is most effectively achieved with X-ray observations. Recent technological developments in X-ray optics and instrumentation now bring this within our grasp, enabling capabilities fully matched to those expected from flagship observatories at longer wavelengths.