Massive black holes, weighing millions to billions of solar masses, inhabit the centers of today’s galaxies. The progenitors of these black holes powered luminous quasars within the first billion years of the Universe. The first massive black holes must therefore have formed around the time the first stars and galaxies appeared and then evolved along with their hosts for the past thirteen billion years. I will discuss some aspects of the cosmic evolution of massive black holes, from their formation to their growth and the interplay between black holes and galaxies.

Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris