In recent years, the discovery of massive quasars at $z\sim7$ has provided a striking challenge to our understanding of the origin and growth of supermassive black holes in the early Universe. Mounting observational and theoretical evidence indicates the viability of massive seeds, formed by the collapse of supermassive stars, as a progenitor model for such early, massive accreting black holes. Although considerable progress has been made in our theoretical understanding, many questions remain regarding how (and how often) such objects may form, how they live and die, and how next generation observatories may yield new insight into the origin of these primordial titans. This review focusses on our present understanding of this remarkable formation scenario, based on the discussions held at the Monash Prato Centre from November 20 to 24, 2017, during the workshop ‘Titans of the Early Universe: The Origin of the First Supermassive Black Holes’.

The Atacama Large (Sub-)millimeter Array (ALMA) has provided glimpse of the interstellar medium (ISM) properties of galaxies at the Epoch of Reionization (EoR); however, detailed understanding of their internal structure is still lacking. We present properties of molecular cloud complexes (MCCs) in a prototypical galaxy at this epoch studied in cosmological zoom-in simulations (Leung et al. 2019c). Typical MCC mass and size are comparable to nearby spirals and starburst galaxies (Mgas∼106.5Mȯ and R≃45–100 pc). MCCs are highly supersonic, with velocity dispersion of σgas≃20–100 km s−1 and pressure of P/kB ≃107.6Kcm−3, which are comparable to gas-rich starburst galaxies. In addition, we perform stability analysis to understand the origin and dynamical properties of MCCs. We find that MCCs are globally stable in the main disk of Althæa. Densest regions where star formation is expected to take place in clumps and cores on even smaller scales instead have lower virial parameter and Toomre-Q values. Detailed studies of the star-forming gas dynamics at the EoR thus require a spatial resolution of < 40 pc ( ≃ 0.01″), which is within reach of ALMA, to complement studies of stellar populations at EoR using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The detection of quasars at z > 6 unveils the presence of supermassive black holes of a few billion solar masses. The rapid formation process of these extreme objects remains a fascinating and open issue. Such discovery implies that seed black holes must have formed early on, and grown via either rapid accretion or BH/galaxy mergers. In this theoretical review, we discuss in detail various BH seed formation mechanisms and the physical processes at play during their assembly. We discuss the three most popular BH formation scenarios, involving the (i) core-collapse of massive stars, (ii) dynamical evolution of dense nuclear star clusters, (iii) collapse of a protogalactic metal free gas cloud. This article aims at giving a broad introduction and an overview of the most advanced research in the field.

In this paper, we demonstrate an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) based on the conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS for the analysis of the cell culture medium upon interaction with circulating cells isolated form peripheral blood sampling of health, sub-clinical and cancer patients. The device comprises arrays of super-hydrophobic micro-pillars in which a finite number of pillars incorporates nano-electrodes for site specific measurements of a solution. Due to its nano-scale architecture, the device realizes time and space resolved measurement of biological solution. Tumor metabolism could produce reactive species able to determine a different electronic behavior of correspondent microenviroment. On this basis, the device here presented the changes in the ESR signals was used to identify electronic changes occurring in the analysis of different type of microenvironment. Our results demonstrate that the device is able to register significative difference to differentiate healthy individuals form cancer patients, through an easy blood sampling. In conclusion, these preliminary data are suggestive of a novel test potentially useful to early identification of subjects at risk to development cancer disease.

I review the capabilities of Hα observations to constrain some aspects of the current models of the interstellar medium. In particular, it is shown that turbulence is a necessary ingredient of any viable model, since most of the energy produced by supernova explosions and ionising radiation is stored in kinetic form in the ISM. Various forms of turbulent energy dissipation, including cloud collisions, are analysed. Two additional aspects, concerning the existence of galactic fountains and their relation with high-velocity Clouds, and the extended ionised layer of spiral galaxies are discussed; some crucial experiments are suggested.

Ultra-high resolution hydrodynamic simulations using 10243 grid points are performed of a very large supernova burst in a forming galaxy, with properties similar to those inferred for Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs). Explosions produce kpc-sized expanding hot bubbles enclosed by cool, dense shells, and the engulfed gas is polluted with freshly-synthesised heavy elements. We show that the resultant inhomogeneous mixing produces a large spread ([Fe/H] ≈ –1 to –5) of metallicities, which affects the subsequent galactic chemical evolution and leaves its imprint on metal-poor stars. By combining a spectral synthesis model with the numerical results, we predict Lyα emission from such galaxy at z = 3. We find that the simulated galaxy, whose peak star formation rate is ≈200 M⊙ yr–1, produces a Lyα luminosity Lα = 9.7 × 1042 erg s–1. This value favorably matches the observed one, but some discrepancies are left for the Lyα line width, the metallicity, and X-ray properties. Since the results of the simulation is applicable only at the very early epoch of the galaxy formation, the metallicity is still lower than that of LBGs. However, the analysis presented here demonstrates a way to enable a systematic comparison with observational data.

It is concluded that LBGs are optimal objects to scrutinise the early self-enrichment in forming galaxies. In the future, the predicted bubbly structure carved by SNe may be directly detected by high resolution observations with JWST.

We propose a cosmological approach to investigate the formation and evolution of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, satellites of the Milky Way, which allows us to follow self-consistently the dSphs and MW formation, matching simultaneously most of their observed properties.

Population III stars, the first generation of stars formed from primordial Big Bang material with a top–heavy IMF, should contribute substantially to the Universe reionization and they are crucial for understanding the early metal enrichment of galaxies. Therefore it is very important that these objects, foreseen by theories, are detected by observations. However PopIII stars, searched through the HeII 1640Å line signature, have remained elusive. We report about the search for the HeII line in a galaxy at z = 6.5, which is a very promising candidate. Unfortunately we are not yet able to show the results of this search. However we call attention to the possible detection of PopIII stars in a lensed HII dwarf galaxy at z = 3.4, which appeared in the literature some years ago, but has been overlooked.

I review the present understanding of the process by which the universe has been enriched in the course of its history with heavy elements produced by stars and transported into the surrounding intergalactic medium. This process goes under the name of “cosmic metal enrichment” and presents some of the most challenging puzzles in present day physical cosmology. These are reviewed along with some proposed explanations that all together form a coherent working scenario.

We present the results obtained from our deep survey of lensing clusters aimed at constraining the abundance of star-forming galaxies at z∼6–11.

The exploration of the earliest phase of star and galaxy formation after the Big Bang remains an important challenge of contemporary astrophysics and represents a key science driver for numerous future facilities. During this phase the first stars and galaxies appear and start to light up and ionize the then neutral Universe ending thereby the so called cosmic dark ages and leading progressively to the complete reionization we observe now at redshift z≃6 or earlier.

We use a semi-analytical approach to simulate absorption spectra of QSOs at high redshifts with the aim of constraining the cosmic reionization history. More details are given in Gallerani et al. (2006) and references therein.

We investigate the possibility of constraining the ionization state of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM) close to the end of re-ionization (z≈6) by measuring the size of the H II regions in high-z quasars spectra, via a combination of SPH and 3D radiative transfer (RT) simulations and a statistical analysis of mock quasar spectra through the simulated cosmological volume.

To interpret H2 quasar absorption line observations in DLAs (damped Lyα clouds), we model the H2 spatial distribution within a DLA. Based on numerical simulations of disk structures with parameters similar to those derived for such absorbers, we calculate the H2 distribution as a function of ultraviolet background (UVB) intensity and dust-to-gas ratio. For typical values of these two quantities we find that the area in which the H2 fraction exceeds 10−6 (typical observational detection limit) only covers < 10% of the disk surface, i.e., H2 has a very inhomogeneous, clumpy distribution even at these low abundance levels. This explains the relative paucity of H2 detections in DLAs. We also show the dependence of the covering fraction of H2 on dust-to-gas ratio and UVB intensity and we comment on the physics governing the H2 chemical network at high redshift. We finally comment on our implication on the statistics of the H2 column density distribution.

I review some of the evidences for dust in the Local Bubble and in galactic halos and show that a general mechanism based on radiation pressure is capable of evacuating dust grains from regions dominated by massive star energy input and thus originate huge dusty halos. A Monte Carlo/particle model has been developed to study the dust dynamics above HII chimneys and the results, among other findings, show that dust can travel several kpc away from the plane of the parent galaxy. The cosmological implications of extragalactic dust are briefly outlined.

We numerically model the impact of superbubbles produced by starbursts on the gas in dwarf galaxies, using realistic gravitational potentials including the contributions from dark matter haloes, and galaxy radii based on empirical laws. We find that the metal-rich gas is very efficiently ejected in many cases, contradicting previous results; the ambient gas is far more difficult to eject. X-ray emitting plumes can last more than 108 yr after the end of the active starburst.