The evolution of massive black hole seeds
M. Volonteri, G. Lodato, P. Natarajan

TL;DR
This paper models the evolution of massive black hole seeds formed by direct gas collapse at high redshifts, predicting their growth, distribution, and observational signatures to distinguish formation scenarios.
Contribution
It introduces a Monte-Carlo merger tree approach to compare different seed formation efficiencies and their impact on black hole demographics and galaxy properties.
Findings
All seed models fit current observations within uncertainties.
Low surface brightness, bulgeless galaxies are unlikely sites for massive seed formation.
Predicted black hole mass-velocity dispersion relation matches observations in low mass galaxies.
Abstract
We investigate the evolution of high redshift seed black hole masses at late times and their observational signatures. The massive black hole seeds studied here form at extremely high redshifts from the direct collapse of pre-galactic gas discs. Populating dark matter halos with seeds formed in this way, we follow the mass assembly of these black holes to the present time using a Monte-Carlo merger tree. Using this machinery we predict the black hole mass function at high redshifts and at the present time; the integrated mass density of black holes and the luminosity function of accreting black holes as a function of redshift. These predictions are made for a set of three seed models with varying black hole formation efficiency. Given the accuracy of current observational constraints, all 3 models can be adequately fit. Discrimination between the models appears predominantly at the low…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
