The mass density in black holes inferred from the X-ray background

The X-ray background (XRB) probably originates from the integrated X-ray emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Modelling of its flat spectrum implies considerable absorption in most AGN. Compton down-scattering means that sources in which the absorption is Compton-thick are unlikely to be major contributors to the background intensity, so the observed spectral intensity at about 30 keV is little affected by photoelectric absorption. Assuming that the intrinsic photon index of AGN is 2, we then use the 30-keV intensity of the XRB to infer the absorption-corrected energy density of the background. Soltan’s argument then enables us to convert this to a mean local density in black holes, assuming an accretion efficiency of 0.1 and a mean AGN redshift of 2. The result is within a factor of 2 of that estimated by Haehnelt et al. from the optically determined black hole masses of Magorrian et al. We conclude that there is no strong need for any radiatively inefficient mode of accretion for building the masses of black holes. Furthermore, we show that the absorption model for the XRB implies that about 85 per cent of accretion power in the Universe is absorbed. This power probably emerges in the infrared bands where it can be several tens per cent of the recently inferred backgrounds there. The total power emitted by accretion is then about one fifth that of stars