The formation of supermassive black holes from Population III.1 seeds. I. Cosmic formation histories and clustering properties

2016/08/31 by Nilanjan Banik, Jonathan C. Tan, Pierluigi Monaco · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Baryon #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Physics #Population #Quasar #Redshift #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Supermassive black hole #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty3298

published as MNRAS, Volume 483, Issue 3, 1 March 2019, Pages 3592-3606 · 18 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS accepted

arxiv created 2018/11/29 · openalex publication_date 2018/12/03 · arxiv updated 2019/01/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We calculate cosmic distributions in space and time of the formation sites of the first, ‘Pop III.1’ stars, exploring a model in which these are the progenitors of all supermassive black holes (SMBHs), seen in the centres of most large galaxies. Pop III.1 stars are defined to form from primordial composition gas in dark matter minihaloes with |∼ 10⁶ M_\odot| that are isolated from neighbouring astrophysical sources by a given isolation distance, diso. We assume Pop III.1 sources are seeds of SMBHs, based on protostellar support by dark matter annihilation heating that allows them to accrete a large fraction of their minihalo gas, i.e. |∼ 10⁵ M_\odot|⁠. Exploring diso from 10 to |100 \rm kpc| (proper distances), we predict the redshift evolution of Pop III.1 source and SMBH remnant number densities. The local, |z| = 0 density of SMBHs constrains |d_\rm iso\lesssim 100 \rm kpc| (i.e. |3 \rm Mpc| comoving distance at |z| ≃ 30). In our simulated (⁠|∼ 60 \rm Mpc)³| comoving volume, Pop III.1 stars start forming just after |z| = 40. Their formation is largely complete by |z| ≃ 25–20 for diso = 100–|50 \rm kpc|⁠. We follow source evolution to |z| = 10, by which point most SMBHs reside in haloes with |\gtrsim 10⁸ M_\odot|⁠. Over this period, there is relatively limited merging of SMBHs for these values of diso. We also predict SMBH clustering properties at |z| = 10: feedback suppression of neighbouring sources leads to relatively flat angular correlation functions.

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Cited by

• Impact of gas-based seeding on supermassive black hole populations at z ≥ 7