Supermassive Black Hole Formation Via Gas Accretion in Nuclear Stellar Clusters
(2011) In Astrophysical Journal Letters 740(2).- Abstract
- Black holes exceeding a billion solar masses have been detected at redshifts greater than six. The rapid formation of these objects may suggest a massive early seed or a period of growth faster than Eddington. Here we suggest a new mechanism along these lines. We propose that in the process of hierarchical structure assembly, dense star clusters can be contracted on dynamical timescales due to the nearly free-fall inflow of self-gravitating gas with a mass comparable to or larger than that of the clusters. This process increases the velocity dispersion to the point where the few remaining hard binaries can no longer effectively heat the cluster, and the cluster goes into a period of homologous core collapse. The cluster core can then reach... (More)
- Black holes exceeding a billion solar masses have been detected at redshifts greater than six. The rapid formation of these objects may suggest a massive early seed or a period of growth faster than Eddington. Here we suggest a new mechanism along these lines. We propose that in the process of hierarchical structure assembly, dense star clusters can be contracted on dynamical timescales due to the nearly free-fall inflow of self-gravitating gas with a mass comparable to or larger than that of the clusters. This process increases the velocity dispersion to the point where the few remaining hard binaries can no longer effectively heat the cluster, and the cluster goes into a period of homologous core collapse. The cluster core can then reach a central density high enough for fast mergers of stellar-mass black holes and hence the rapid production of a black hole seed that could be 10(5) M-circle dot or larger. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2253564
- author
- Davies, Melvyn B LU ; Miller, M. Coleman and Bellovary, Jillian M.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- black hole physics, galaxies: evolution, galaxies: formation, galaxies:, nuclei
- in
- Astrophysical Journal Letters
- volume
- 740
- issue
- 2
- article number
- L42
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000296752600011
- scopus:80053973259
- ISSN
- 2041-8213
- DOI
- 10.1088/2041-8205/740/2/L42
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- db9e9e9a-54a3-4482-967b-ab244a51b32c (old id 2253564)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:00:01
- date last changed
- 2024-04-22 02:56:37
@article{db9e9e9a-54a3-4482-967b-ab244a51b32c,
abstract = {{Black holes exceeding a billion solar masses have been detected at redshifts greater than six. The rapid formation of these objects may suggest a massive early seed or a period of growth faster than Eddington. Here we suggest a new mechanism along these lines. We propose that in the process of hierarchical structure assembly, dense star clusters can be contracted on dynamical timescales due to the nearly free-fall inflow of self-gravitating gas with a mass comparable to or larger than that of the clusters. This process increases the velocity dispersion to the point where the few remaining hard binaries can no longer effectively heat the cluster, and the cluster goes into a period of homologous core collapse. The cluster core can then reach a central density high enough for fast mergers of stellar-mass black holes and hence the rapid production of a black hole seed that could be 10(5) M-circle dot or larger.}},
author = {{Davies, Melvyn B and Miller, M. Coleman and Bellovary, Jillian M.}},
issn = {{2041-8213}},
keywords = {{black hole physics; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: formation; galaxies:; nuclei}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Astrophysical Journal Letters}},
title = {{Supermassive Black Hole Formation Via Gas Accretion in Nuclear Stellar Clusters}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/740/2/L42}},
doi = {{10.1088/2041-8205/740/2/L42}},
volume = {{740}},
year = {{2011}},
}