Missing Link Found? The “Runaway” Path to Supermassive Black Holes

By Toshikazu Ebisuzaki, J. Makino, T. Tsuru, Y. Funato, Simon Portegies Zwart, P. Hut, S. McMillan, S. Matsushita, H. Matsumoto, R. Kawabe. 2001

232 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Observations of stellar kinematics, gasdynamics, and masers around galactic nuclei have now firmly established that many galaxies host central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with masses in the range of ~106-109 M☉. However, how these SMBHs formed is not well understood. One reason for this situation is the lack of observations of intermediate-mass BHs (IMBHs), which could bridge the gap between stellar mass BHs and SMBHs. Recently, this missing link (i.e., an IMBH) has been found in observations made by ASCA and Chandra of the central region of the starburst galaxy M82. Subsequent observations by Subaru have revealed that this IMBH apparently coincides with a young compact star cluster. Based on these findings, we suggest a new formation scenario for SMBHs. In this scenario, IMBHs first form in young compact star clusters through runaway merging of massive stars. While these IMBHs are forming, the host star clusters sink toward the galactic nucleus through dynamical friction and upon evaporation deposit their IMBHs near the galactic center. The IMBHs then form binaries and eventually merge via gravitational radiation, forming an SMBH.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

X-Ray Spectroscopic Evidence for Intermediate-Mass Black Holes: Cool Accretion Disks in Two Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources (2002, background): “Ebisuzaki et al. (2001) have proposed that intermediate mass black holes may form in young compact star clusters.”
Hubble Space Telescope Evidence for an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in the Globular Cluster M15. II. Kinematic Analysis and Dynamical Modeling (2002, background): “Studies of such scenarios have gained much interest lately (Ebisuzaki et al. 2001; Miller & Hamilton 2002; Mouri & Taniguchi 2002; Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2002) after the discovery of ultraluminous X-ray objects in external galaxies (e.g., Colbert & Mushotzky 1999).”
Massive black hole seeds from low angular momentum material (2003, background): “…that rely on the coalescence of massive stellar remnants that sink to the galaxy centres (Quinlan & Shapiro 1990; Hills & Bender 1995; Lee 1995; Ebisuzaki et al. 2001) to one that models black hole growth via ballistic particle capture during bulge collapse (Adams, Graff & Richstone 2001;…”
High-resolution imaging of the He II λ4686 emission line nebula associated with the ultraluminous X-ray source in Holmberg II (2004, background): “Intermediate-mass black holes may be excellent sources of gravitational radiation (Ebisuzaki et al. 2001; Miller & Hamilton 2002).”
Massive black hole binaries from runaway collisions: the impact of metallicity (2016, background): “According to the runaway collision scenario (Colgate 1967; Sanders 1970; Quinlan & Shapiro 1990; Ebisuzaki et al. 2001; Portegies Zwart et al. 1999; Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2002), a massive object experiencing multiple collisions can become a very massive blue straggler star (with mass >> 100…”
Formation of supermassive black holes (2010, background): “…that an MBH could in principle form as a result of dynamical interactions in dense stellar systems is a long standing idea (Begelman and Rees, 1978; Ebisuzaki et al, 2001; Miller and Hamilton, 2002; Portegies Zwart and McMillan, 2002; Portegies Zwart et al, 2004; Freitag et al, 2006b,a; Gürkan et…”
The Need for a Second Black Hole at the Galactic Center (2003, background): “Indeed, it has been suggested (Ebisuzaki et al. 2001) that SBH form from the collapse of a cluster of IBH.”
Resolved Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Star Formation in Disks at High Redshift (2007, background): “The giant clumps do not appear dense enough to make black holes, however (e.g., see Ebisuzaki et al. 2001).”
Binary Mergers and Growth of Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters (2005, background): “Although the origin of IMBHs is not directly constrained by any observations, one possibility that has received considerable attention is the growth of a verymassive object through successive collisions and mergers of ordinary massive stars in the cluster core (Colgate 1967; Ebisuzaki et al. 2001).”
Massive Black Holes in Star Clusters. II. Realistic Cluster Models (2004, background): “They would provide the missing link between the stellar mass black holes which form as a result of stellar evolution and the supermassive black holes in galactic centres (Ebisuzaki et al. 2001).”
DISSIPATIONLESS FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF THE MILKY WAY NUCLEAR STAR CLUSTER (2011, result): “…Ghez, A. M., Morris, M. R., Lu, J. R., Matthews, K., Yelda, S., & Larkin, J. 2009, ApJ, 703, 1323 Emsellem, E. & van de Ven, G. 2008, ApJ, 674, 653 Ebisuzaki et al. 2001, ApJ, 562, L19 Faber, S. M. et al. 1997, AJ, 114, 1771 Ferrarese, L. et al. 2006, ApJ, 644, L21 Figer, D. F., Kim, S. S.,…”
Can Supermassive Black Holes Form in Metal-enriched High-Redshift Protogalaxies? (2008, background): “Furthermore, in young and compact star clusters supermassive stars may form through repeated collisions (e.g., Portegies Zwart et al. 1999, 2004; Ebisuzaki et al. 2001).”
Intermediate - mass black holes (2003, background): “As discussed in § 4, Ebisuzaki et al. (2001), Portegies Zwart & McMillan (2002), and Gürkan et al. (2003) have proposed that in young stellar clusters there may be a significant number of direct stellar collisions that produce a large star and an extra massive black hole remnant after a supernova.”
Formation of Massive Black Holes in Dense Star Clusters. I. Mass Segregation and Core Collapse (2003, background): “…time to its presentday state with t rh ≥ 10 8 yr (Lauer et al. 1998), or that the growth of the central BH was predominantly from accretion of smaller star clusters with short relaxation times (each one carrying an IMBH at its center ; Ebisuzaki et al. 2001; Hansen & Milosavljevi´c 2003).”