Black Hole Demography: From scaling relations to models

Abstract

In this contributed paper I review our current knowledge of the local Black Hole (BH) scaling relations, and their impact on the determination of the local BH mass function. I particularly emphasize the remaining systematic uncertainties impinging upon a secure determination of the BH mass function and how progress can be made. I then review and discuss the evidence for a different time evolution for separate BH-galaxy scaling relations, and how these independent empirical evidences can be reconciled with the overall evolution of the structural properties of the host galaxies. I conclude discussing BH demography in the context of semi-empirical continuity accretion models, as well as more complex evolutionary models, emphasizing the general constraints we can set on them.