Interaction of supermassive black holes with their stellar and dark matter environments
Abstract
While supermassive black holes probably gained most of their mass via accretion
of gas, the galactic nuclei in which they are currently situated are dominated
by stars. This article reviews recent theoretical work on the interaction between
black holes and their stellar environment, and highlights ways in which the observed
structure of galactic nuclei can be used to constrain the formation history
of black holes. Nuclei may also contain dark matter, and the possibility of detecting
supersymmetric particles via annihilation radiation from the Galactic center
has generated some interest[26]. The evolution of the dark matter distribution
in the presence of a black hole in a stellar nucleus is also discussed.