2002/12/31 by Volker Bromm, Abraham Loeb · 10 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/377529
published as Astrophys.J. 596 (2003) 34-46 · 11 pages, 9 figures, revised version, ApJ in press (October 10, 2003)
arxiv created 2003/06/17 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We consider the physical conditions under which supermassive black holes could have formed inside the first galaxies. Our smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations indicate that metal-free galaxies with a virial temperature of ~10 4 K and suppressed H 2 formation (due to an intergalactic UV background) tend to form a binary black hole system that contains a substantial fraction (≳10%) of the total baryonic mass of the host galaxy. Fragmentation into stars is suppressed without substantial H 2 cooling. Our simulations follow the condensation of ~5 × 10 6 M ☉ around the two centers of the binary down to a scale of ≲0.1 pc. Low-spin galaxies form a single black hole instead. These early black holes lead to quasar activity before the epoch of reionization. Primordial black hole binaries lead to gravitational radiation emission at redshifts z ≳ 10 that would be detectable by Laser Interferometer Space Antenna .