Abstract
We quantify the importance of mass accretion during AGN phases in the growth of supermassive black holes (BH) by comparing the mass function of black holes in the local universe with that expected from AGN relics, which are black holes grown entirely with mass accretion during AGN phases. The local BH mass function (BHMF) is estimated by applying the well-known correlations between BH mass, bulge luminosity and stellar velocity dispersion to galaxy luminosity and velocity functions. The density of BH's in the local universe is 4.6 (-1.4; +1.9) (h/0.7)^2 10^5 Msun Mpc^-3. The relic BHMF is derived from the continuity equation with the only assumption that AGN activity is due to accretion onto massive BH's and that merging is not important. We find that the relic BHMF at z=0 is generated mainly at z 10^9 Msun. (abridged)
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