Seeding supermassive black holes with a non-vortical dark-matter subcomponent

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where a non-vortical dark matter component, called IDM, forms a cosmic skeleton with supermassive black holes at the joints, potentially explaining early supermassive black hole formation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dark matter component, IDM, that prevents shell-crossing and facilitates rapid black hole growth, addressing early universe black hole formation.

Findings

IDM forms filamentary structures with black holes at joints

Black hole growth is more rapid at later times with IDM

Model explains billion-solar-mass black holes at high redshifts

Abstract

A perfect irrotational fluid with the equation of state of dust, Irrotational Dark Matter (IDM), is incapable of virializing and instead forms a cosmoskeleton of filaments with supermassive black holes at the joints. This stark difference from the standard cold dark matter (CDM) scenario arises because IDM must exhibit potential flow at all times, preventing shell-crossing from occurring. This scenario is applicable to general non-oscillating scalar-field theories with a small sound speed. Our model of combined IDM and CDM components thereby provides a solution to the problem of forming the observed billion-solar-mass black holes at redshifts of six and higher. In particular, as a result of the reduced vortical flow, the growth of the black holes is expected to be more rapid at later times as compared to the standard scenario.