Zoom Recording

We present a new empirical model, Trinity, that observationally constrains the joint relationship between supermassive black holes (SMBHs), galaxies, and dark matter halos from z=0 to z=7.  Trinity is unique in its ability to systematically combine constraints from a wide variety of SMBH and galaxy observations, allowing the resulting inferences to be free of theoretical assumptions that have been present in past models.  We can hence recover the average growth and merger histories of all detectable SMBHs, describe the evolution of the SMBH—galaxy relationship through time, and discuss correlations between galaxy growth and SMBH growth. We also provide a natural solution to the origin of the high accretion rates necessary to grow the largest SMBHs observed at z>6.