Direct formation of supermassive black holes via multi-scale gas inflows in galaxy mergers

L. Mayer (), S. Kazantzidis, A. Escala and S. Callegari
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L. Mayer: Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich, 190 Winterthurestrasse, Zürich 8057, Switzerland
S. Kazantzidis: Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University
A. Escala: Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago 7550000, Chile
S. Callegari: Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich, 190 Winterthurestrasse, Zürich 8057, Switzerland

Nature, 2010, vol. 466, issue 7310, 1082-1084

Abstract: Black holes arrived early Previously published models of supermassive black hole formation have struggled to explain the fact that — according to observations of distant quasars — supermassive black holes were already in place less than a billion years after the Big Bang. A new series of numerical simulations suggests that the conditions for direct collapse into a supermassive black hole can arise naturally on this time scale from mergers between massive protogalaxies. Multi-scale gas inflows give rise to an unstable, massive nuclear gas disk that expands to form a sub-parsec scale gas cloud in only 100,000 years. The cloud undergoes gravitational collapse, which leads to the formation of a massive black hole.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09294

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