Massive black hole seeds from low angular momentum material

By S. Koushiappas, James S. Bullock, A. G. O. S. University, H. C. F. Astrophysics, The Hebrew University. 2003

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We present a cosmologically motivated model in which the seeds of supermassive black holes form out of the lowest angular momentum gas in protogalaxies at high redshift. We show that, under reasonable assumptions, this leads naturally to a correlation between black hole masses and spheroid properties, as observed today. We assume that the gas in early-forming, rare-peak haloes has a distribution of specific angular momentum similar to that derived for the dark matter in cosmological N-body simulations. This distribution has a significant low angular momentum tail, which implies that every protogalaxy should contain gas that ends up in a high-density disc. In haloes more massive than a critical threshold of ∼7 x 10 7 M ○. at z ∼ 15, the discs are gravitationally unstable, and experience an efficient Lin-Pringle viscosity that transfers angular momentum outwards and allows mass inflow. We assume that this process continues until the first massive stars disrupt the disc. The seed black holes created in this manner have a characteristic mass of ∼ 10 5 M ○. , roughly independent of the redshift of formation. This serves as a lower bound for black hole masses at galactic centres today. The comoving mass density in black hole seeds grows with time, tracking the continuous production of critical-mass haloes, and saturates when cosmic reionization acts to prevent gas cooling in these low-mass systems. By z ∼ 15, the comoving mass density becomes comparable to that inferred from observations, with room for appropriate additional luminous growth during a later quasar accretion phase. The hierarchical merger process after z ∼ 15 naturally leads to a linear correlation between black hole mass and stellar spheroid mass, with negligible black hole masses in disc-dominated galaxies. The formation of massive seeds at high redshifts, and the relatively important role of mergers in the buildup of today's black holes, are key elements in the proposed scenario.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/64516d54defe0b7d9bacf4323d54be6d92c1c52f

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Citations in the corpus

Formation of supermassive black holes by direct collapse in pre-galactic haloes (2006, background): “Eisenstein & Loeb (1995) and Koushiappas et al. (2004) investigated the formation of black holes from low angular momentum material, either in halos with extremely low angular momentum (Eisenstein & Loeb 1995), or by considering only the low angular momentum tail of material in halos with efficient…”
Supermassive black hole formation by direct collapse: keeping protogalactic gas H2 free in dark matter haloes with virial temperatures Tvir > rsim 104 K (2009, background): “The notable exceptions are Spaans & Silk (2006), whose model does not require any explicit H2 destruction 2, and BL03, who per- 1 Another necessary condition is for the gas to loose angular momentum efficiently.”
Supermassive black hole formation during the assembly of pre-galactic discs (2006, background): “One approach taken by Eisenstein & Loeb (1995) and Koushiappas et al. (2004) is to argue that it is preferentially either low spin halos with consequently low angular momentum gas or the low spin tail of the gas distribution in halos that can cool efficiently that form these seeds.”
SUPER-CRITICAL GROWTH OF MASSIVE BLACK HOLES FROM STELLAR-MASS SEEDS (2014, background): “Therefore, if the first seeds were ∼ 100 M⊙ remnants of the first generation of massive stars (e.g Madau & Rees 2001; Haiman & Loeb 2001; Heger et al. 2003; Volonteri et al. 2003), these could grow into billion-solar-mass holes by z ∼ 7 only if all the following conditions were fullfilled: 1) seeds ”
Formation of supermassive black holes (2010, background): “…family of models for MBH formation relies on the collapse of supermassive objects formed directly out of dense gas (Haehnelt and Rees, 1993; Loeb and Rasio, 1994; Eisenstein and Loeb, 1995; Bromm and Loeb, 2003; Koushiappas et al, 2004; Begelman et al, 2006; Lodato and Natarajan, 2006).”
FORMATION OF THE FIRST NUCLEAR CLUSTERS AND MASSIVE BLACK HOLES AT HIGH REDSHIFT (2008, background): “Alternative routes to BH seed formation have been explored (Haehnelt & Rees 1993, Loeb & Rasio 1994, Eisenstein & Loeb 1995, Bromm & Loeb 2003, Koushiappas et al. 2004, Begelman, Volonteri & Rees 2006, Lodato & Natarajan 2006), typically exploiting gas-dynamical processes in metal-free galaxies.”
Taiji program: Gravitational-wave sources (2018, background): “III stars with masses ∼ 10(2)M [6] or may form due to the collapse of proto-galaxies with masses ∼ 10(4) − 10(6)M [7] at high redshifts z ∼ 15 − 20.”
Pathways to massive black holes and compact star clusters in pre-galactic dark matter haloes with virial temperatures ≳10 000 K (2008, background): “…can act as seeds for the growth of SMBHs (e.g. Haehnelt & Rees 1993; Umemura et al. 1993; Eisenstein & Loeb 1995; Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Oh & Haiman 2002; Bromm & Loeb 2003; Koushiappas et al. 2004; Begelman et al. 2006; Lodato & Natarajan 2006; Volonteri et al. 2008; Tanaka & Haiman 2008).”
Formation of Supermassive Black Hole Seeds (2016, background): “…is to form a massive BH seed of 105 − 106 M⊙ directly via the gas dynamical processes (Rees 1984; Haehnelt & Rees 1993; Loeb & Rasio 1994; Eisenstein & Loeb 1995; Bromm & Loeb 2003; Koushiappas et al. 2004; Begelman et al. 2006; Spaans & Silk 2006) known as the direct collapse black hole (DCBH).”
Small-scale dynamo action during the formation of the first stars and galaxies - I. The ideal MHD limit (2010, background): “…of such fields thus provides additional stability during the formation of intermediate-mass black holes, which are often considered to form in such systems (e.g. Eisenstein & Loeb 1995; Koushiappas et al. 2004; Begelman et al. 2006; Spaans & Silk 2006; Shang et al. 2009; Schleicher et al. 2010).”
The evolution of massive black hole seeds (2007, background): “Under these conditions, many authors (Koushiappas et al. 2004; Begelman et al. 2006; Lodato & Natarajan 2006, 2007) have shown that pre-galactic discs can efficiently transport matter into their innermost regions through the development and amplification of non-axisymmetric gravitational…”