Magnetic fields during the formation of supermassive black holes

Abstract

Observations of quasars at $\mathrm{z}>6$ report the existence of a billion solar mass black holes. Comprehending their formation in such a short time scale is a matter of ongoing research. One of the most promising scenarios to assemble supermassive black holes is a monolithic collapse of protogalactic gas clouds in atomic cooling halos with ${\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{vir}}\ge 10^4\mathrm{K}$. In this article, we study the amplification and impact of magnetic fields during the formation of seed black holes in massive primordial halos. We perform high resolution cosmological magnetohydrodynamics simulations for four distinct halos and follow their collapse for a few free-fall times until the simulations reach a peak density of $7\times 10^{-10}g/c{\mathrm{m}}^3$. Our findings show that irrespective of the initial seed field, the magnetic field strength reaches a saturated state in the presence of strong accretion shocks. Under such conditions, the growth time becomes very short and amplification occurs rapidly within a small fraction of the free-fall time. We find that the presence of such strong magnetic fields provides additional support against gravity and helps in suppressing fragmentation. Massive clumps of a few hundred solar masses are formed at the end of our simulations and high accretion rates of $1{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }/yr$ are observed. We expect that in the presence of such accretion rates, the clumps will grow to form supermassive stars of $\sim 10^5{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Overall, the role of the magnetic fields seems supportive for the formation of massive black holes.

arXiv commentMatches the accepted version, to be published in MNRAS. Accepted 2014 February 21. Received 2014 February 18; in original form 2013 October 14

References in corpus (72)

• Astrophysical magnetic fields and nonlinear dynamo theory
• A luminous quasar at a redshift of z = 7.085
• A Multi-Code Analysis Toolkit for Astrophysical Simulation Data
• Formation of Supermassive Black Holes by Direct Collapse in Pregalactic Halos
• Comparing the statistics of interstellar turbulence in simulations and observations: Solenoidal versus compressive turbulence forcing
• Formation of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• Formation of Supermassive Black Holes
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Discovery of Three Additional Quasars at z>6
• The formation of massive black holes through collision runaway in dense young star clusters
• Supermassive black hole formation during the assembly of pre-galactic discs
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Discovery of Seven Additional Quasars
• Second-Generation Objects in the Universe: Radiative Cooling and Collapse of Halos with Virial Temperatures Above 10^4 Kelvin
• The Evolution of Cosmic Magnetic Fields: From the Very Early Universe, to Recombination, to the Present
• Formation of the first nuclear clusters and massive black holes at high redshift
• A new Jeans resolution criterion for (M)HD simulations of self-gravitating gas: Application to magnetic field amplification by gravity-driven turbulence
• Supermassive Black Hole Formation by Direct Collapse: Keeping Protogalactic Gas H_2--Free in Dark Matter Halos with Virial Temperatures T_vir >~ 10^4 K
• Formation of Primordial Supermassive Stars by Rapid Mass Accretion
• Primordial Star Formation under Far-ultraviolet radiation
• The Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
• What is the Highest Plausible Redshift of Luminous Quasars?
• Fluctuations in the High-Redshift Lyman-Werner Background: Close Halo Pairs as the Origin of Supermassive Black Holes
• Can Supermassive Black Holes Form in Metal-Enriched High-Redshift Protogalaxies ?
• Mach Number Dependence of Turbulent Magnetic Field Amplification: Solenoidal versus Compressive Flows
• Ubiquitous seeding of supermassive black holes by direct collapse
• Black hole formation in the early universe
• Photodissociation of H2 in Protogalaxies: Modeling Self-Shielding in 3D Simulations
• Resolving the Formation of Protogalaxies. II. Central Gravitational Collapse
• Magnetic Fields Produced by Phase Transition Bubbles in the Electroweak Phase Transition
• Pathways to massive black holes and compact star clusters in pre-galactic dark matter haloes with virial temperatures > 10000K
• The generation of strong magnetic fields during the formation of the first stars
• Evolution of supermassive stars as a pathway to black hole formation
• Rapidly Accreting Supergiant Protostars: Embryos of Supermassive Black Holes?
• Small-scale dynamo action during the formation of the first stars and galaxies. I. The ideal MHD limit
• The aftermath of the first stars: massive black holes
• Quasistars: Accreting black holes inside massive envelopes
• The characteristic black hole mass resulting from direct collapse in the early universe
• Magnetic Fields in Population III Star Formation
• Magnetic fields in barred galaxies. IV. NGC 1097 and NGC 1365
• Constraints from Gravitational Recoil on the Growth of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshift
• Massive black hole factories: Supermassive and quasi-star formation in primordial halos
• The Small-Scale Dynamo and Non-Ideal MHD in Primordial Star Formation
• Pregalactic Black Hole Formation with an Atomic Hydrogen Equation of State
• Supermassive Seeds for Supermassive Black Holes
• Magnetic Field Amplification by Small-Scale Dynamo Action: Dependence on Turbulence Models and Reynolds and Prandtl Numbers
• The formation of compact massive self-gravitating discs in metal-free haloes with virial temperatures of ~ 13000-30000 K
• Accretion onto black holes formed by direct collapse
• The Formation of Supermassive Black Holes from Low-Mass Pop III Seeds
• Angular Momentum Transfer and Lack of Fragmentation in Self-Gravitating Accretion Flows
• Supermassive black hole formation by the cold accretion shocks in the first galaxies
• The Growth of the Stellar Seeds of Supermassive Black Holes
• The Formation of Population III Stars in Gas Accretion Stage: Effects of Magnetic Fields
• Supermassive Black Hole Formation at High Redshifts via Direct Collapse: Physical Processes in the Early Stage
• Black hole formation in primordial galaxies: chemical and radiative conditions
• Cosmic magnetization: from spontaneously emitted aperiodic turbulent to ordered equipartition fields
• Relativistic Hydrodynamic Flows Using Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Structured Mesh Refinement
• The small scale dynamo and the amplification of magnetic fields in massive primordial haloes
• Adaptive Mesh Fluid Simulations on GPU
• High resolution studies of massive primordial haloes
• The formation of massive Pop III stars in the presence of turbulence
• Can the turbulent galactic dynamo generate large-scale magnetic fields?
• The influence of magnetic fields, turbulence, and UV radiation on the formation of supermassive black holes
• The Supernova that Destroyed a Protogalaxy: Prompt Chemical Enrichment and Supermassive Black Hole Growth
• The structure and evolution of quasi-stars
• The small-scale dynamo: Breaking universality at high Mach numbers
• The Impact of Lyman alpha Trapping on the Formation of Primordial Objects
• Illuminating the Primeval Universe with Type IIn Supernovae
• Turbulent magnetic field amplification from the smallest to the largest magnetic Prandtl numbers
• Quasi-stars, giants and the Schönberg-Chandrasekhar limit
• The impact of thermodynamics on gravitational collapse: filament formation and magnetic field amplification
• Lyman alpha emission from the first galaxies: Implications of UV backgrounds and the formation of molecules
• Local support against gravity in magneto-turbulent fluids
• Generation of Magnetic Field on the Accretion Disk around a Proto-First-Star

Cited by in corpus (45)

• The Assembly of the First Massive Black Holes
• Titans of the Early Universe: The Prato Statement on the Origin of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• Formation of supermassive black hole seeds
• Initial mass function of intermediate mass black hole seeds
• Magnetic field amplification in turbulent astrophysical plasmas
• Formation of massive protostars in atomic cooling haloes
• The Turbulent Dynamo in Highly Compressible Supersonic Plasmas
• How realistic UV spectra and X-rays suppress the abundance of direct collapse black holes
• A UV flux constraint on the formation of direct collapse black holes
• The importance of magnetic fields for the initial mass function of the first stars
• Formation of the first stars and black holes
• A No-Go Theorem for Direct Collapse Black Holes Without a Strong Ultraviolet Background
• Witnessing the birth of a supermassive protostar
• Magnetic field amplification in accretion discs around the first stars: implications for the primordial IMF
• Simulating the growth of Intermediate Mass Black Holes
• The formation of massive primordial stars in the presence of moderate UV backgrounds
• Intermediate-mass black holes from Population III remnants in the first galactic nuclei
• Origin of supermassive black holes in massive metal-poor protoclusters
• Assembly of supermassive black hole seeds
• Radiation Hydrodynamical Simulations of the Birth of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in the First Galaxies
• Low-metallicity star formation: Relative impact of metals and magnetic fields
• Formation of the first stars
• Magnetic fields in primordial accretion disks
• The formation of protostellar binaries in primordial minihalos
• The Collapse of Atomically-Cooled Primordial Haloes. I. High Lyman-Werner Backgrounds
• Nonlinear turbulent dynamo during gravitational collapse
• Dark-matter halo mergers as a fertile environment for low-mass Population III star formation
• Effects of turbulence and rotation on protostar formation as a precursor to seed black holes
• Magnetic fields catalyze massive black hole formation and growth
• Nonlinear closures for scale separation in supersonic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
• Magnetic fields during galaxy mergers
• Intermittent fragmentation and statistical variations during gas collapse in magnetised atomic cooling haloes
• Role of magnetic fields in the formation of direct collapse black holes
• Supernova explosions in magnetized, primordial dark matter halos
• First Star Formation in the Presence of Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Formation of metal-free binaries: Impact of H${}_2$ line cooling and CIE cooling
• Cosmological magnetic braking and the formation of high-redshift, super-massive black holes
• Amplification of Magnetic Fields in a Primordial HII Region and Supernova
• Magnetic braking during direct collapse black hole formation
• Black hole formation via gas-dynamical processes
• Halo Mergers Enhance the Growth of Massive Black Hole Seeds
• Radio signals from early direct collapse black holes
• Small-scale dynamo with finite correlation times
• Primordial magnetic fields from the string network
• Ultralight axion or axion-like particle dark matter and 21-cm absorption signals in new physics