Feedback Limits to Maximum Seed Masses of Black Holes

Abstract

The most massive black holes observed in the Universe weigh up to $\sim 10^{10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, nearly independent of redshift. Reaching these final masses likely required copious accretion and several major mergers. Employing a dynamical approach, that rests on the role played by a new, relevant physical scale - the transition radius - we provide a theoretical calculation of the maximum mass achievable by a black hole seed that forms in an isolated halo, one that scarcely merged. Incorporating effects at the transition radius and their impact on the evolution of accretion in isolated haloes we are able to obtain new limits for permitted growth. We find that large black hole seeds ($M_{\bullet }\gtrsim 10^4{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) hosted in small isolated halos ($M_h\lesssim 10^9{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) accreting with relatively small radiative efficiencies ($\epsilon \lesssim 0.1$) grow optimally in these circumstances. Moreover, we show that the standard $M_{\bullet }-\sigma$ relation observed at $z\sim 0$ cannot be established in isolated halos at high-$z$, but requires the occurrence of mergers. Since the average limiting mass of black holes formed at $z\gtrsim 10$ is in the range $10^{4-6}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, we expect to observe them in local galaxies as intermediate-mass black holes, when hosted in the rare haloes that experienced only minor or no merging events. Such ancient black holes, formed in isolation with subsequent scant growth, could survive, almost unchanged, until present.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (24)

• A luminous quasar at a redshift of z = 7.085
• A Survey of z>5.8 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Discovery of Three New Quasars and the Spatial Density of Luminous Quasars at z~6
• Formation of Supermassive Black Holes
• The merger rate of galaxies in the Illustris Simulation: a comparison with observations and semi-empirical models
• An ultra-luminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30
• Supermassive black hole formation during the assembly of pre-galactic discs
• Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies
• The evolution of massive black hole seeds
• Super-Critical Growth of Massive Black Holes from Stellar-Mass Seeds
• Hyper-Eddington accretion flows onto massive black holes
• Rapid growth of seed black holes in the early universe by supra-exponential accretion
• Chasing the heaviest black holes of jetted Active Galactic Nuclei
• Massive black holes lurking in Milky Way satellites
• The Cool Accretion Disk in ESO 243-49 HLX-1: Further Evidence of an Intermediate Mass Black Hole
• The Growth Efficiency of High-Redshift Black Holes
• The largest black holes and the most luminous galaxies
• Is there an upper limit to black hole masses?
• How Big Can a Black Hole Grow?
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Quasars Using Broad Optical and UV Emission Lines
• Is there a maximum mass for black holes in galactic nuclei?
• Simulating the growth of Intermediate Mass Black Holes
• On the radio properties of the intermediate-mass black hole candidate ESO 243-49 HLX-1
• Dark Matter Halo Environment for Primordial Star Formation
• Bulge-driven Fueling of Seed Black Holes

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Gravitational wave searches for ultralight bosons with LIGO and LISA
• JWST CEERS & JADES Active Galaxies at z = 4-7 Violate the Local $M_{\bullet }-M_{\star }$ Relation at $>3\sigma$: Implications for Low-Mass Black Holes and Seeding Models
• Titans of the Early Universe: The Prato Statement on the Origin of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• Conditions for Optimal Growth of Black Hole Seeds
• Signatures of primordial black holes as seeds of supermassive black holes
• Separating Accretion and Mergers in the Cosmic Growth of Black Holes with X-ray and Gravitational Wave Observations
• Glimmering in the dark: modeling the low-mass end of the $M_{\bullet }-\sigma$ relation and of the quasar luminosity function
• The nature of the Lyman Alpha Emitter CR7: a persisting puzzle
• The Collapse of Atomically-Cooled Primordial Haloes. I. High Lyman-Werner Backgrounds
• The Active Fraction of Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
• J0906+6930: a radio-loud quasar in the early Universe
• Active Galactic Nuclei: Boon or Bane for Biota?
• Global instability by runaway collisions in nuclear stellar clusters: Numerical tests of a route for massive black hole formation
• Propulsion of Spacecrafts to Relativistic Speeds Using Natural Astrophysical Sources
• Quenching of supermassive black hole growth around the apparent maximum mass
• Efficiency of black hole formation via collisions in stellar systems: An analysis of data from simulations and observations
• Radio Power from a Direct-Collapse Black Hole in CR7
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey -- XIII. The nature of the most luminous obscured AGN in the low-redshift universe
• The Clustering of Undetected High-redshift Black Holes and Their Signatures in Cosmic Backgrounds
• Observational Signatures of Massive Black Hole Progenitor Pathways: Could Leo I a Smoking Gun?
• Extreme Tidal Stripping May Explain the Overmassive Black Hole in Leo I: a Proof of Concept
• Effects of the Hubble Parameter on the Cosmic Growth of the First Quasars