Joint Astrophysical Colloquium
Physical properties of z~6 quasars
Simona Gallerani (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)
Thursday 10/01/2019 @ 11:30, Sala IV piano Battiferro
High redshift quasars represent ideal laboratories for studying the black hole growth at early epochs, the properties of their host galaxies and the joint formation and evolution of these systems. Since the beginning of the new millennium, hundreds of luminous quasars have been discovered at z~6 through several surveys, and followed-up with multi-wavelength observations. For several of them, the mass of the hosted BH has been measured and found to be as massive as 108-1010 Msun. The existence of such super massive black holes (SMBH) in the early Universe represents a challenging problem in modern cosmology. First, I will review the most recent observations of z~6 quasars obtained with (sub-)millimeter and X-ray facilities. Then, I will discuss key observational challenges and open issues in theoretical models. Finally, I will highlight possible new strategies to improve our understanding of the galaxy-black hole formation and evolution in the early Universe.