Supermassive black hole formation via collisions in black hole clusters

Abstract

More than 300 supermassive black holes have been detected at redshifts larger than 6, and they are abundant in the centers of local galaxies. Their formation mechanisms, however, are still rather unconstrained. A possible origin of these supermassive black holes could be through mergers in dense black hole clusters, forming as a result of mass segregation within nuclear star clusters in the center of galaxies. In this study, we present the first systematic investigation of the evolution of such black hole clusters where the effect of an external potential is taken into account. Such a potential could be the result of gas inflows into the central region, for example as a result of galaxy mergers. We show here that the efficiency for the formation of a massive central object is mostly regulated by the ratio of cluster velocity dispersion divided by the speed of light, potentially reaching efficiencies of 0.05-0.08 in realistic systems. Our results show that this scenario is potentially feasible and may provide seeds black hole of at least 10^3 solar masses. We conclude that the formation of seed black holes via this channel should be taken into account in statistical assessments of the black hole population.

15 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication with A&A

References in corpus (27)

• First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole
• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way
• An ultra-luminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30
• The Pan-STARRS1 distant z>5.6 quasar survey: more than 100 quasars within the first Gyr of the universe
• Formation of the first nuclear clusters and massive black holes at high redshift
• Can Supermassive Black Holes Form in Metal-Enriched High-Redshift Protogalaxies ?
• Formation of massive black holes in rapidly growing pre-galactic gas clouds
• The Coincidence of Nuclear Star Clusters and Active Galactic Nuclei
• From Supermassive Black Holes to Dwarf Elliptical Nuclei: a Mass Continuum
• The aftermath of the first stars: massive black holes
• Improved Dynamical Constraints on the Masses of the Central Black Holes in Nearby Low-mass Early-type Galactic Nuclei And the First Black Hole Determination for NGC 205
• Constraining the high redshift formation of black hole seeds in nuclear star clusters with gas inflows
• Repeated mergers and ejection of black holes within nuclear star clusters
• How realistic UV spectra and X-rays suppress the abundance of direct collapse black holes
• The effect of stellar-mass black holes on the structural evolution of massive star clusters
• How the First Stars Regulated Local Star Formation I: Radiative Feedback
• Widespread, strong outflows in XQR-30 quasars at the Reionisation epoch
• Dynamics of compact objects clusters: A post-Newtonian study
• Constraining the Black Hole Initial Mass Function with LIGO/VIRGO Observations
• Origin of supermassive black holes in massive metal-poor protoclusters
• Post-Newtonian N-body simulations
• Global instability by runaway collisions in nuclear stellar clusters: Numerical tests of a route for massive black hole formation
• The effects of a background potential in star cluster evolution: a delay in the relaxation time-scale and runaway collision processes
• Large-scale dynamics of winds originated from black hole accretion flows: (II) Magnetohydrodynamics
• Nuclear Activity in the Low Metallicity Dwarf Galaxy SDSS J0944-0038: A Glimpse into the Primordial Universe
• A Closer Look at Two of the Most Luminous Quasars in the Universe
• AGN radiative feedback in the early growth of massive black holes

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Rapid formation of a very massive star >50000 $M_{\odot }$ and subsequently an IMBH from runaway collisions. Direct N-body and Monte Carlo simulations of dense star clusters
• Massive black hole formation in Population III star clusters
• Evolution of a black hole cluster in full general relativity
• Electromagnetic signatures of black hole clusters in the center of super-Eddington galaxies
• Spin-up and mass-gain in hyperbolic encounters of spinning black holes
• Identification of Candidate Halos Hosting Massive Black Hole Seeds in the $\text{Renaissance}$ Simulations with Support Vector Machines
• Massive star clusters detected by JWST as natural birth places to form intermediate-mass black holes