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The formation and growth of the first super massive black holes (SMBHs) at z ~ 6 is a subject of intense debate. If black holes grow at their Eddington rates, they must start from high-mass seeds, (Mseed ~10⁴ -10⁵ Msun), formed by direct collapse of gasHere I will consider an alternative scenario where remnant of population III stars, (M ~ 100 Msun), can grow at super-Eddington rates via radiatively inefficient slim accretion disks. In Pezzulli et al. , (MNRAS 2016), we use an improved version of the cosmological, data-constrained semi-analytic model GAMETE/QSODUST. We follow, for each progenitor present in the simulation, the evolution of nuclear BH, gas cooling, disk and bulge formation of their host galaxies together with the star formation, SNe/AGN feedback and chemical and dust enrichment. By adopting SDSS J1148+5251 at z=6. 4 as a prototype of luminous z=6 quasars, we find that ~ 80% of the SMBH mass of J1148 is provided by super-Eddington gas accretion, which can be sustained down to z ~ 10 in dense, gas-rich environments, and the BH progenitors of the final SMBH evolve in symbiosis with their host galaxiesWe reproduce all the observed quantities of J1148, also predicting an AGN-driven mass outflow rate at z=6. 4 broadly consistent with the radial profile inferred from CII observation by Cicone et al. 2015. Interestingly, find that ~20% of J1148 progenitors at z=7. 1 have BH luminosities and masses comparable to ULAS J1120, suggesting that the most distant quasar ever observed may be one of the progenitors of J1148.
Pezzulli et al. (Mon,) studied this question.