Rapid Black Hole Growth under Anisotropic Radiation Feedback

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that anisotropic radiation feedback enables rapid, super-Eddington accretion onto black holes by creating a neutral inflow region, potentially explaining the quick growth of high-redshift supermassive black holes.

Contribution

It introduces a new model of anisotropic radiation feedback that facilitates super-Eddington accretion, highlighting the importance of shadowing effects in black hole growth.

Findings

Accretion rates exceed Eddington limit, approaching Bondi rates.

Bipolar ionized outflows coexist with equatorial neutral inflow.

Shadowing effect determines critical opening angle for accretion quenching.

Abstract

Discovery of high-redshift (z > 6) supermassive black holes (BHs) may indicate that the rapid (or super-Eddington) gas accretion has aided their quick growth. Here, we study such rapid accretion of the primordial gas on to intermediate-mass (10^2 - 10^5 M_sun) BHs under anisotropic radiation feedback. We perform two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations that solve the flow structure across the Bondi radius, from far outside of the Bondi radius down to a central part which is larger than a circum-BH accretion disc. The radiation from the unresolved circum-BH disc is analytically modeled considering self-shadowing effect. We show that the flow settles into a steady state, where the flow structure consists of two distinct parts: (1) bipolar ionized outflowing regions, where the gas is pushed outward by thermal gas pressure and super-Eddington radiation pressure, and (2) an equatorial neutral inflowing region, where the gas falls toward the central BH without affected by radiation feedback. The resulting accretion rate is much higher than that in the case of isotropic radiation, far exceeding the Eddington-limited rate to reach a value slightly lower than the Bondi one. The opening angle of the equatorial inflowing region is determined by the luminosity and directional dependence of the central radiation. We find that photoevaporation from its surfaces set the critical opening angle of about ten degrees below which the accretion to the BH is quenched. We suggest that the shadowing effect allows even stellar-remnant BHs to grow rapidly enough to become high-redshift supermassive BHs.