The Formation of Supermassive Black Holes from Population III.1 Seeds. I. Cosmic Formation Histories and Clustering Properties

TL;DR

This paper models the formation and evolution of the first supermassive black hole seeds from Population III.1 stars, predicting their cosmic distribution, clustering, and the impact of isolation distance on their development.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking primordial star formation in isolated minihalos to SMBH origins, exploring how isolation distance affects their cosmic history and clustering.

Findings

SMBH formation begins just after redshift 40.

Most SMBHs reside in halos with >10^8 solar masses by redshift 10.

Limited SMBH merging occurs for the modeled isolation distances.

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 centers of most large galaxies. Pop III.1 stars are defined to form from primordial composition gas in dark matter minihalos with $\sim10^6\:M_\odot$ that are isolated from neighboring astrophysical sources by a given isolation distance, $d_{\rm{iso}}$. 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., $\sim10^5\:M_\odot$. Exploring $d_{\rm{iso}}$ from $10 - 100\:\rm{kpc}$ (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 $z\simeq30$). In our simulated ($\sim60\:\rm{Mpc}$)$^3$ comoving volume, Pop III.1 stars start forming just after $z=40$. Their formation is largely complete by $z\simeq25$ to $20$ for $d_{\rm{iso}}=100$ to $50\:\rm{kpc}$. We follow source evolution to $z=10$, by which point most SMBHs reside in halos with $\gtrsim10^8\:M_\odot$. Over this period, there is relatively limited merging of SMBHs for these values of $d_{\rm{iso}}$. We also predict SMBH clustering properties at $z=10$: feedback suppression of neighboring sources leads to relatively flat angular correlation functions.