Stellar black holes: cosmic history and feedback at the dawn of the
  universe
  Significant historic cosmic evolution for the formation rate of stellar black
holes is inferred from current theoretical models of the evolution of massive
stars, the multiple observations of compact stellar remnants in the near and
distant universe, and the cosmic chemical evolution. The mean mass of stellar
black holes, the fraction of black holes/neutron stars, and the fraction of
black hole high mass X-ray binaries (BH-HMXBs)/solitary black holes increase
with redshift. The energetic feedback from large populations of BH-HMXBs form
in the first generations of star burst galaxies has been overlooked in most
cosmological models of the reionization epoch of the universe. The powerful
radiation, jets, and winds from BH-HMXBs heat the intergalactic medium over
large volumes of space and keep it ionized until AGN take over. It is concluded
that stellar black holes constrained the properties of the faintest galaxies at
high redshifts. I present here the theoretical and observational grounds for
the historic cosmic evolution of stellar black holes. Detailed calculations on
their cosmic impact are presented elsewhere (Mirabel, Dijkstra, Laurent, Loeb,
Pritchard, 2011).
