We present a physical model for the coevolution of massive spheroidalgalaxies and active nuclei at their centers. Supernova heating is increasinglyeffective in slowing down the star formation and in driving gas outflows insmaller and smaller dark matter halos. Thus the more massive protogalaxiesvirializing at early times are the sites of faster star formation. Thecorrespondingly higher radiation drag causes a faster angular momentum loss bythe gas and induces a larger accretion rate onto the central black hole. Inturn, the kinetic energy of the outflows powered by the active nuclei canunbind the residual gas in a time shorter for larger halos. The model accountsfor a broad variety of dynamical, photometric and metallicity properties ofearly-type galaxies, for the M_BH -- \sigma relation and for the localsupermassive black-hole mass function.
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