BLACK HOLES
Black Hole growth across time and mass
Black Holes are one of the most puzzling astronomical objects in the Universe: how do supermassive black holes form, and what is the black hole mass function? The statistical power of the WST, combined with its operational approach, will be key in investigating intermediate mass black holes and constrain the whole range of black hole populations and their influence on galaxies.
Black holes are signposts of some of the most extreme physical conditions in nature.
Stellar mass black holes (<10^2 MSun) are the endpoint of the evolution of the most massive stars, while supermassive black holes (>10^5 MSun) are located at the centre of massive galaxies, and their growth is tightly linked with the evolution of their host.
Since the seminal discovery of accreting massive black holes at cosmological distances in the 1960s (Schmidt 1963) much progress has been made, but we still don’t have a clear understanding of how supermassive black holes form and how they influence galaxy evolution.
The WST will be in a unique position to constrain the BH mass function, investigating the demographics of black holes in a very wide range of masses, from stellar to supermassive black holes. This would be key to understanding how black holes form.
The characterization of the so far elusive population of black holes of intermediate masses (10^2 MSun-10^5 MSun) would constrain BH seeds formation models, which are currently under much debate following the early discoveries of JWST of potentially large populations of very massive BH in the early Universe.
Synergies
The study with the MOS and IFU of WST of the connection between black holes and their host galaxies will have strong synergies with future radio (SKA) and X-ray (e.g. new Athena) facilities. The WST’s characterization of BH binary systems will be crucial for future facilities to study gravitational waves, both from space (LISA, more sensitive to SMBHs mergers) and from the ground (e.g. the Einstein telescope, more sensitive to stellar mass BH mergers).
Synergies
The WST will fill a critical gap in the global astronomical infrastructure of the 2040s.
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Galaxy assembly across physical scale
Galaxy evolution spans a vast range of scales, from star formation in molecular clouds to large-scale galactic processes shaped by the cosmic environment.