Related papers: The Biggest Explosions in the Universe. II
The existence of supermassive black holes as early as z ~ 7 is one of the great unsolved problems in cosmological structure formation. One leading theory argues that they are born during catastrophic baryon collapse in z ~ 15 protogalaxies…
The collapse of baryons into extremely massive stars with masses exceeding 10^4 M_Sun in a small fraction of protogalaxies at z > 10 is a promising candidate for the origin of supermassive black holes, some of which grow to a billion solar…
The first primitive galaxies formed from accretion and mergers by z ~ 15, and were primarily responsible for cosmological reionization and the chemical enrichment of the early cosmos. But a few of these galaxies may have formed in the…
The origins of the ~10^9 Msun quasar supermassive black holes (BHs) at redshifts z > 6 remain a theoretical puzzle. One possibility is that they grew from ~10^5 Msun BHs formed in the 'direct collapse' of pristine, atomic-cooling…
Supermassive primordial stars are expected to form in a small fraction of massive protogalaxies in the early universe, and are generally conceived of as the progenitors of the seeds of supermassive black holes (BHs). Supermassive stars with…
Pristine, atomically-cooled haloes may be the sites of primordial quasar formation because atomic cooling triggers rapid baryon collapse that can create 10$^4$ - 10$^5$ M$_{\odot}$ black hole seeds. However, no numerical simulation has ever…
The detection of $\rm z>6$ quasars reveals the existence of supermassive black holes of a few $\rm 10^9~M_{\odot}$. One of the potential pathways to explain their formation in the infant universe is the so-called direct collapse model which…
Supermassive black holes with up to a $\rm 10^{9}~M_{\odot}$ dwell in the centers of present-day galaxies, and their presence has been confirmed at z $\geq$ 6. Their formation at such early epochs is still an enigma. Different pathways have…
We describe a mechanism by which supermassive black holes can form directly in the nuclei of protogalaxies, without the need for seed black holes left over from early star formation. Self-gravitating gas in dark matter halos can lose…
While large numbers of supermassive black holes have been detected at z>6, their origin is still essentially unclear. Numerical simulations have shown that the conditions for the classical direct collapse scenario are very restrictive and…
Recent James Webb Space Telescope observations have unveiled that the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs) were in place at z $\geq$ 10, a few hundred Myrs after the Big Bang. These discoveries are providing strong constraints on the…
Large dynamic range numerical simulations of atomic cooling driven collapse of gas in pre-galactic DM haloes with T_vir ~ 10000 K show that the gas loses 90% and more of its angular momentum before rotational support sets in. In a fraction…
We propose high-velocity collisions of protogalaxies as a new pathway to form supermassive stars (SMSs) with masses of ~ 10^5 Msun at high redshift (z > 10). When protogalaxies hosted by dark matter halos with a virial temperature of ~ 10^4…
The origin of super-massive black holes in the early universe remains poorly understood.Gravitational collapse of a massive primordial gas cloud is a promising initial process,but theoretical studies have difficulty growing the black hole…
Supermassive primordial stars forming during catastrophic baryon collapse in atomically-cooling halos at $z \sim$ 15 - 20 may be the origin of the first quasars in the universe. However, no simulation to date has followed the evolution of…
We present a model for the formation of massive black holes ($\sim 1000 \msun$) due to stellar-dynamical processes in the first stellar clusters formed at early cosmic times ($z\sim10-20$). The high redshift black hole seeds form as a…
Supermassive black holes are now realized to exist in the centers of most galaxies. The recent discoveries of luminous quasars at redshifts higher than 6 require that these black holes were assembled already when the Universe was less than…
We propose a new mechanism for the formation of seeds of supermassive black holes at early cosmic epochs. Enhanced density fluctuations with amplitudes that are not large enough to form primordial black holes post-inflation can still lead…
The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that inhabit the centers of massive galaxies is largely unconstrained. Remnants from supermassive stars (SMSs) with masses around 10,000 solar masses provide the ideal seed candidates, known as…
High-redshift quasar observations imply that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) larger than $\sim 10^9 ~ M_\odot$ formed before $z=6$. That such large SMBHs formed so early in the Universe remains an open theoretical problem. One possibility…