What drives the growth of black holes: a decade of progress

TL;DR

Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in understanding super-massive black hole growth, AGN physics, and their impact on galaxy evolution, driven by new data, techniques, and facilities.

Contribution

This review synthesizes a decade of progress in SMBH and AGN research, highlighting new insights, methodologies, and the influence of technological advancements.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of SMBH accretion physics

Identification of AGNs up to redshift 10

Comprehensive census of AGN activity across cosmic time

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed significant progress in our understanding of the growth of super-massive black holes (SMBHs). It is now clear that an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN: the observed manifestation of a growing SMBH) is an "event" within the broader lifecycle of a galaxy, which can significantly influence the shape and evolution of the galaxy itself. Our view of the obscuring medium that affects the observed properties of an AGN has also undergone a revolution, and we now have a more physical understanding of the connection between the fuelling of (and feedback from) the SMBH and the broader host-galaxy and larger-scale environment. We have a greater understanding of the physics of SMBH accretion, can identify AGNs out to z = 8-10 witnessing the very earliest phases of SMBH growth, and have a more complete census of AGN activity than ever before. This great progress has been enabled by new innovative facilities, an ever-increasing quantity of multi-wavelength data, the exploitation and development of new techniques, and greater community-wide engagement. In this article we review our understanding of AGNs and the growth of SMBHs, providing an update of the earlier Alexander and Hickox (2012) review. Using citation-network analyses we also show where this review fits within the broader black-hole research literature and, adopting the previous article as a snapshot of the field over a decade ago, identify the drivers that have enabled the greatest scientific progress.