No Arabic abstract
The feasibility of making highly redshifted HI 21-cm (rest frame) measurements from an early epoch of the Universe between the Dark Ages and Reionization (i.e., z>6 and nu<200 MHz) to probe the effects of feedback from the first stars and quasars is assessed in this paper. It may be possible to determine the distribution of hydrogen through the Universe and to constrain the birth of the first stars and black holes via HI tomography. Such observations may also place limits on the properties of Inflation and any exotic heating mechanisms before the first star formation begins (e.g., dark matter decay). The global (all-sky) HI signal after Recombination has distinct features at different frequencies between 30 and 200 MHz that changes as the relative balance between the CMB and spin temperatures changes due to the expansion of the Universe and the ignition of stars and/or black holes. A technology roadmap to approach these observations beginning with ground-based arrays and ending with a low frequency radio array on the lunar farside is described.
To investigate the potential abundance and impact of nuclear black holes (BHs) during reionization, we generate a neural network that estimates their masses and accretion rates by training it on 23 properties of galaxies harbouring them at $z=6$ in the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Massive-Black II. We then populate all galaxies in the simulation from $z=18$ to $z=5$ with BHs from this network. As the network allows to robustly extrapolate to BH masses below those of the BH seeds, we predict a population of faint BHs with a turnover-free luminosity function, while retaining the bright (and observed) BHs, and together they predict a Universe in which intergalactic hydrogen is $15%$ ionized at $z=6$ for a clumping factor of 5. Faint BHs may play a stronger role in H reionization without violating any observational constraints. This is expected to have an impact also on pre-heating and -ionization, which is relevant to observations of the 21 cm line from neutral H. We also find that BHs grow more efficiently at higher $z$, but mainly follow a redshift-independent galaxy-BH relation. We provide a power law parametrisation of the hydrogen ionizing emissivity of BHs.
The growth of the first super massive black holes (SMBHs) at z > 6 is still a major challenge for theoretical models. If it starts from black hole (BH) remnants of Population III stars (light seeds with mass ~ 100 Msun) it requires super-Eddington accretion. An alternative route is to start from heavy seeds formed by the direct collapse of gas onto a ~ 10^5 Msun BH. Here we investigate the relative role of light and heavy seeds as BH progenitors of the first SMBHs. We use the cosmological, data constrained semi-analytic model GAMETE/QSOdust to simulate several independent merger histories of z > 6 quasars. Using physically motivated prescriptions to form light and heavy seeds in the progenitor galaxies, we find that the formation of a few heavy seeds (between 3 and 30 in our reference model) enables the Eddington-limited growth of SMBHs at z > 6. This conclusion depends sensitively on the interplay between chemical, radiative and mechanical feedback effects, which easily erase the conditions that allow the suppression of gas cooling in the low metallicity gas (Z < Zcr and JLW > Jcr). We find that heavy seeds can not form if dust cooling triggers gas fragmentation above a critical dust-to-gas mass ratio (D > Dcr). In addition, the relative importance of light and heavy seeds depends on the adopted mass range for light seeds, as this dramatically affects the history of cold gas along the merger tree, by both SN and AGN-driven winds.
An extraordinary recent development in astrophysics was the discovery of the fossil relationship between central black hole mass and the stellar mass of galactic bulges. The physical process underpinning this relationship has become known as feedback. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was instrumental in realizing the physical basis for feedback, by demonstrating a tight coupling between the energy released by supermassive black holes and the gaseous structures surrounding them. This white paper discusses how a great leap forward in X-ray collecting area and spectral resolution will allow a qualitatively new way of studying how feedback from black holes influenced the growth of structure.
We develop a simple evolutionary scenario for the growth of supermassive black holes (BHs), assuming growth due to accretion only, to learn about the evolution of the BH mass function from $z=3$ to 0 and from it calculate the energy budgets of different modes of feedback. We tune the parameters of the model by matching the derived X-ray luminosity function (XLF) with the observed XLF of active galactic nuclei. We then calculate the amount of comoving kinetic and bolometric feedback as a function of redshift, derive a kinetic luminosity function and estimate the amount of kinetic feedback and $PdV$ work done by classical double Fanaroff-Riley II (FR II) radio sources. We also derive the radio luminosity function for FR IIs from our synthesized population and set constraints on jet duty cycles. Around 1/6 of the jet power from FR II sources goes into $PdV$ work done in the expanding lobes during the time the jet is on. Anti hierarchical growth of BHs is seen in our model due to addition of an amount of mass being accreted on to all BHs independent of the BH mass. The contribution to the total kinetic feedback by active galaxies in a low accretion, kinetically efficient mode is found to be the most significant at $z<1.5$. FR II feedback is found to be a significant mode of feedback above redshifts $zsim 1.5$, which has not been highlighted by previous studies.
We study the prospects of future gravitational wave (GW) detectors in probing primordial black hole (PBH) binaries. We show that across a broad mass range from $10^{-5}M_odot$ to $10^7M_odot$, future GW interferometers provide a potential probe of the PBH abundance that is more sensitive than any currently existing experiment. In particular, we find that galactic PBH binaries with masses as low as $10^{-5}M_odot$ may be probed with ET, AEDGE and LISA by searching for nearly monochromatic continuous GW signals. Such searches could independently test the PBH interpretation of the ultrashort microlensing events observed by OGLE. We also consider the possibility of observing GWs from asteroid mass PBH binaries through graviton-photon conversion.