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The Origin of Supermassive Black Holes from Pop III.1 Seeds

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arxiv 2412.01828 v1 pith:MVH4FRCN submitted 2024-12-02 astro-ph.GA astro-ph.CO

classification astro-ph.GAastro-ph.CO
keywords smbhmodelsmbhssupermassiveblackholescosmicdark
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abstract

The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is a key open question for contemporary astrophysics and cosmology. Here we review the features of a cosmological model of SMBH formation from Pop III.1 seeds, i.e., remnants of metal-free stars forming in locally-isolated minihalos, where energy injection from dark matter particle annihilation alters the structure of the protostar allowing growth to supermassive scales (Banik et al. 2019; Singh et al. 2023; Cammelli et al. 2024). The Pop III.1 model explains the paucity of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) via a characteristic SMBH seed mass of $\sim10^5\:M_\odot$ that is set by the baryonic content of minihalos. Ionization feedback from supermassive Pop III.1 stars sets the cosmic number density of SMBHs to be $n_{\rm SMBH}\lesssim 0.2\:{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$. The model then predicts that all SMBHs form by $z\sim20$ with a spatial distribution that is initially unclustered. SMBHs at high redshifts $z\gtrsim7$ should all be single objects, with SMBH binaries and higher order multiples emerging only at lower redshifts. We also discuss the implications of this model for SMBH host galaxy properties, occupation fractions, gravitational wave emission, cosmic reionization, and the nature of dark matter. These predictions are compared to latest observational results, especially from HST, JWST and pulsar timing array observations.

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Cited by 7 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. The Emergence and Ionizing Feedback of Pop III.1 Stars as Progenitors for Supermassive Black Holes

    astro-ph.GA 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Radiation-hydro simulations show Pop III.1 stars ionize bubbles of about 1 cMpc, which sets an isolation distance that yields n_SMBH ~ 10^-1 cMpc^-3 by z=14.

  2. On the rapid growth of SMBHs in high-z galaxies: the aftermath of Population III.1 stars

    astro-ph.GA 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Cosmological zoom-in simulations find that 10^5 solar mass Pop III.1 black hole seeds reach ~10^7 solar masses by z=8, with AGN feedback, especially radiation, regulating growth and launching fast outflows.

  3. The Evolution of Pop III.1 Protostars Powered by Dark Matter Annihilation. I. Fiducial model and first results

    astro-ph.SR 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    WIMP annihilation heating above roughly 5e14 GeV/cm3 can keep primordial protostars cool and inflated, letting them grow past 1e5 solar masses and form heavy black hole seeds.

  4. Flash Ionization of the Early Universe by Pop III.1 Supermassive Stars

    astro-ph.CO 2025-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Pop III.1 supermassive stars flash-ionize much of the early universe at z~20-30, adding tau~0.04 to the CMB optical depth and potentially easing Hubble tension and DESI anomalies.

  5. Dynamics of low-mass black hole seeds in the BRAHMA simulations using subgrid-dynamical friction: Impact on merger-driven black hole growth in the high redshift Universe

    astro-ph.GA 2025-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Adding subgrid dynamical friction to BRAHMA simulations lowers predicted z>5 seed-black-hole merger rates by 4-10x relative to repositioning, to 100-1000 per year in the 9 Mpc boxes.

  6. The Impact of Population III.1 Flash Reionization for CMB Polarization and Thomson Scattering Optical Depth

    astro-ph.CO 2025-10 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    An early 'Pop III.1 Flash' reionization phase shifts CMB polarization power from l<8 to l>8, allowing a higher optical depth τ≈0.08–0.09 while staying closer to Planck's low-l EE data than a standard tanh reionization model.

  7. Reconstructing PTA measurements via early seeding of supermassive black holes

    astro-ph.CO 2025-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Dark-star-seeded supermassive black holes with number density around 10^-3 per cubic megaparsec could dominate the PTA gravitational wave background, with PTA data capping the seed density near 0.1 per cubic megaparsec.

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