Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, and the Black Hole Initiative (BHI), have shed light on how black holes grow over time by developing a new model to predict if growth by accretion or by mergers is dominant.
The study has been presented at the virtual 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and published simultaneously in The Astrophysical Journal.
Dr Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, and Dr. Fabio Pacucci, astrophysicist and BHI & Clay Fellow at CfA, have developed a theoretical model to determine the main channel for the growth of black holes. The model is valid from the local universe up to redshift 10, or roughly from the present day to about 13 billion years ago. The study suggests that the main growth channel depends on the mass of the black hole and on redshift. (ANI)