The existence of 109 M⊙ supermassive black holes (SMBHs) within the first billion years of the Universe remains a puzzle in our conventional understanding of black hole formation and growth. Several suggested formation pathways for these SMBHs lead to a heavy seed, with an initial black hole mass of 104–106 M⊙. This can lead to an overly massive BH galaxy (OMBG), whose nuclear black hole’s mass is comparable to or even greater than the surrounding stellar mass: the black hole to stellar mass ratio is Mbh/M* ≫ 10−3, well in excess of the typical values at lower redshift. We investigate how long these newborn BHs remain outliers in the Mbh − M* relation, by exploring the subsequent evolution of two OMBGs previously identified in the Renaissance simulations. We find that both OMBGs have Mbh/M* > 1 during their entire life, from their birth at z ≈ 15 until they merge with much more massive haloes at z ≈ 8. We find that the OMBGs are spatially resolvable from their more massive, 1011 M⊙, neighbouring haloes until their mergers are complete at z ≈ 8. This affords a window for future observations with JWST and sensitive X-ray telescopes to diagnose the heavy-seed scenario,more »
Prospects to Explore High-redshift Black Hole Formation with Multi-band Gravitational Waves Observatories
The assembly of massive black holes in the early universe remains a poorly constrained open question
in astrophysics. The merger and accretion of light seeds (remnants of Population III stars with mass
below ∼ 1000 M ) or heavy seeds (in the mass range 104−106 M ) could both explain the formation of
massive black holes, but the abundance of seeds and their merging mechanism are highly uncertain. In
the next decades, the gravitational-wave observatories coming online are expected to observe very highredshift mergers, shedding light on the seeding of the first black holes. In this Letter we explore the
potential and limitations for LISA, Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope to constrain the mixture
ratio of light and heavy seeds as well as the probability that central black holes in merging galaxies
merge as well. Since the third generation ground-based gravitational-wave detectors will only observe
light seed mergers, we demonstrate two scenarios in which the inference of the seed mixture ratio
and merging probability can be limited. The synergy of multi-band gravitational-wave observations
and electromagnetic observations will likely be necessary in order to fully characterize the process of
high-redshift black hole formation.
- Award ID(s):
- 1743747
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10350537
- Journal Name:
- ArXivorg
- ISSN:
- 2331-8422
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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ABSTRACT -
The existence of 109 M⊙ supermassive black holes (SMBHs) within the first billion years of the universe remains a puzzle in our conventional understanding of black hole formation and growth. The so-called direct-collapse scenario suggests that the formation of supermassive stars (SMSs) can yield the massive seeds of early SMBHs. This scenario leads to an overly massive BH galaxy (OMBG), whose nuclear black hole’s mass is comparable to or even greater than the surrounding stellar mass: a 104 − 106 M⊙ seed black hole is born in a dark matter halo with a mass as low as 107 − 108 M⊙. The black hole to stellar mass ratio is 𝑀bh/𝑀∗ ≫ 10−3, well in excess of the typical values at lower redshift. We investigate how long these newborn BHs remain outliers in the 𝑀bh − 𝑀∗ relation, by exploring the subsequent evolution of two OMBGs previously identified in the Renaissance simulations. We find that both OMBGs have𝑀bh/𝑀∗>1 during their entire life, from their birth at 𝑧≈15 until they merge with much more massive haloes at 𝑧 ≈ 8. We find that the OMBGs are spatially resolvable from their more massive, 1011 M⊙, neighboring haloes until their mergers are complete atmore »
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