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Register a new userSupermassive Black Hole Formation at High Redshifts via Direct Collapse in a Cosmological Context
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Jun-Hwan Choi
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We study the early stage of the formation of seed supermassive black holes via direct collapse in dark matter (DM) halos, in the cosmological context. We perform high-resolution zoom-in simulations of such collapse at high-$z$. Using the adaptive mesh refinement code ENZO, we resolve the formation and growth of a DM halo, until its virial temperature reaches $sim 10^4$K, atomic cooling turns on, and collapse ensues. We demonstrate that direct collapse proceeds in two stages, although they are not well separated. The first stage is triggered by the onset of atomic cooling, and leads to rapidly increasing accretion rate with radius, from $dot Msim 0.1,M_odot {rm yr^{-1}}$ at the halo virial radius to few $M_odot ,{rm yr^{-1}}$, around the scale radius $R_{rm s}sim 30$pc of the NFW DM density profile. The second stage of the collapse commences when the gas density takes precedence over the DM density. This is associated with the gas decoupling from the DM gravitational potential. The ensuing collapse approximates that of an isothermal sphere with $dot M ( r )sim $const. We confirm that the gas loses its angular momentum through non-axisymmetric perturbations and gravitational torques, to overcome the centrifugal barrier. During the course of the collapse, this angular momentum transfer process happens on nearly all spatial scales, and the angular momentum vector of the gas varies with position and time. Collapsing gas also exhibits supersonic turbulent motions which suppress gas fragmentation, and are characterized by density PDF consisting of a lognormal part and a high-density power law tail.
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We use numerical simulations to explore whether direct collapse can lead to the formation of SMBH seeds at high-z. We follow the evolution of gas within DM halos of 2 x 10^8 Mo and 1 kpc. We adopt cosmological density profiles and j-distributions. Our goal is to understand how the collapsing flow overcomes the centrifugal barrier and whether it is subject to fragmentation. We find that the collapse leads either to a central runaway or to off-center fragmentation. A disk-like configuration is formed inside the centrifugal barrier. For more cuspy DM distribution, the gas collapses more and experiences a bar-like perturbation and a central runaway. We have followed this inflow down to ~10^{-4} pc. The flow remains isothermal and the specific angular momentum is efficiently transferred by gravitational torques in a cascade of nested bars. This cascade supports a self-similar, disk-like collapse. In the collapsing phase, virial supersonic turbulence develops and fragmentation is damped. For larger initial DM cores the timescales become longer. In models with more organized initial rotation, a torus forms and appears to be supported by turbulent motions. The evolution depends on the competition between two timescales, corresponding to the onset of the central runaway and off-center fragmentation. For less organized rotation, the torus is greatly weakened, the central accretion timescale is shortened, and off-center fragmentation is suppressed --- triggering the central runaway even in previously `stable models. The resulting SMBH masses lie in the range 2 x 10^4 Mo - 2 x 10^6 Mo, much higher than for Population III remnants. We argue that the above upper limit appears to be more realistic mass. Corollaries of this model include a possible correlation between SMBH and DM halo masses, and similarity between the SMBH and halo mass functions, at time of formation.
We have modeled direct collapse of a primordial gas within dark matter halos in the presence of radiative transfer, in high-resolution zoom-in simulations in a cosmological framework, down to the formation of the photosphere and the central object. Radiative transfer has been implemented in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation. Adiabatic models were run for comparison. We find that (a) the FLD flow forms an irregular central structure and does not exhibit fragmentation, contrary to adiabatic flow which forms a thick disk, driving a pair of spiral shocks, subject to Kelvin-Helmholtz shear instability forming fragments; (b) the growing central core in the FLD flow quickly reaches ~10 Mo and a highly variable luminosity of 10^{38}-10^{39} erg/s, comparable to the Eddington luminosity. It experiences massive recurrent outflows driven by radiation force and thermal pressure gradients, which mix with the accretion flow and transfer the angular momentum outwards; and (c) the interplay between these processes and a massive accretion, results in photosphere at ~10 AU. We conclude that in the FLD model (1) the central object exhibits dynamically insignificant rotation and slower than adiabatic temperature rise with density; (2) does not experience fragmentation leading to star formation, thus promoting the fast track formation of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) seed; (3) inclusion of radiation force leads to outflows, resulting in the mass accumulation within the central 10^{-3} pc, which is ~100 times larger than characteristic scale of star formation. The inclusion of radiative transfer reveals complex early stages of formation and growth of the central structure in the direct collapse scenario of SMBH seed formation.
We study the collapse of rapidly rotating supermassive stars that may have formed in the early Universe. By self-consistently simulating the dynamics from the onset of collapse using three-dimensional general-relativistic hydrodynamics with fully dynamical spacetime evolution, we show that seed perturbations in the progenitor can lead to the formation of a system of two high-spin supermassive black holes, which inspiral and merge under the emission of powerful gravitational radiation that could be observed at redshifts z>10 with the DECIGO or Big Bang Observer gravitational-wave observatories, assuming supermassive stars in the mass range 10^4-10^6 Msol. The remnant is rapidly spinning with dimensionless spin a^*=0.9. The surrounding accretion disk contains ~10% of the initial mass.
MeV blazars are the most luminous persistent sources in the Universe and emit most of their energy in the MeV band. These objects display very large jet powers and accretion luminosities and are known to host black holes with a mass often exceeding $10^9 M_{odot}$. An MeV survey, performed by a new generation MeV telescope which will bridge the entire energy and sensitivity gap between the current generation of hard X-ray and gamma-ray instruments, will detect $>$1000 MeV blazars up to a redshift of $z=5-6$. Here we show that this would allow us: 1) to probe the formation and growth mechanisms of supermassive black holes at high redshifts, 2) to pinpoint the location of the emission region in powerful blazars, 3) to determine how accretion and black hole spin interplay to power the jet.
Direct collapse within dark matter (DM) halos is a promising path to form supermassive black hole (SMBH) seeds at high redshifts. The outer part of this collapse remains optically thin, and has been studied intensively using numerical simulations. However, the innermost region of the collapse is expected to become optically thick and requires us to follow the radiation field in order to understand its subsequent evolution. So far, the adiabatic approximation has been used exclusively for this purpose. We apply radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation to solve the evolution of coupled gas and radiation, for isolated halos. For direct collapse within isolated DM halos, we find that (1) the photosphere forms at ~10^{-6} pc and rapidly expands outward. (2) A central core forms, with a mass of ~1 Mo, supported by thermal gas pressure gradients and rotation. (3) Growing thermal gas and radiation pressure gradients dissolve it. (4) This process is associated with a strong anisotropic outflow, and another core forms nearby and grows rapidly. (5) Typical radiation luminosity emerging from the photosphere encompassing these cores is ~5 x 10^{37}-5 x 10^{38} erg/s, of order the Eddington luminosity. (6) Two variability timescales are associated with this process: a long one, which is related to the accretion flow within the central ~10^{-4}-10^{-3} pc, and ~0.1 yr, which is related to radiation diffusion. (7) Adiabatic models have been run for comparison and their evolution differs profoundly from that of the FLD models, by forming a central geometrically-thick disk. Overall, an adiabatic equation of state is not a good approximation to the advanced stage of direct collapse, mainly because the radiation in the FLD is capable of escaping due to anisotropy in the optical depth and associated gradients.
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