We study the statistics and cosmic evolution of massive black hole seeds formed during major mergers of gas-rich late-type galaxies. Generalizing the results of the hydro-simulations from Mayer et al. 2010, we envision a scenario in which a supermassive star can form at the center of galaxies that just experienced a major merger owing to a multi-scale powerful gas inflow, provided that such galaxies live in haloes with masses above 10^{11} Msun, are gas-rich and disc-dominated, and do not already host a massive black hole. We assume that the ultimate collapse of the supermassive star leads to the rapid formation of a black hole of 10^5 Msun following a quasi-star stage. Using a model for galaxy formation applied to the outputs of the Millennium Simulation, we show that the conditions required for this massive black hole formation route to take place in the concordance LambdaCDM model are actually common at high redshift, and can be realized even at low redshift. Most major mergers above z~4 in haloes with mass > 10^{11} Msun can lead to the formation of a massive seed and, at z~2, the fraction of favourable mergers decreases to about half. Interestingly, we find that even in the local universe a fraction (~20%) of major mergers in massive haloes still satisfy the conditions for our massive black hole formation route. Those late events take place in galaxies with a markedly low clustering amplitude, that have lived in isolation for most of their life, and that are experiencing a major merger for the first time. We predict that massive black hole seeds from galaxy mergers can dominate the massive end of the mass function at high (z>4) and intermediate (z~2) redshifts relative to lighter seeds formed at higher redshift, for example, by the collapse of Pop III stars. Finally, a fraction of these massive seeds could lie, soon after formation, above the MBH-MBulge relation.
The origin and properties of black hole seeds that grow to produce the detected population of supermassive black holes are unconstrained at present. Despite the existence of several potentially feasible channels for the production of initial seeds in the high redshift universe, since even actively growing seeds are not directly observable at these epochs, discriminating between models remains challenging. Several new observables that encapsulate information about seeding have been proposed in recent years, and these offer exciting prospects for truly unraveling the nature of black hole seeds i…
One of the most promising mechanisms for producing radio halos (RHs) in galaxy clusters is the reacceleration of cosmic-ray electrons by turbulences. However, the origin of the seed electrons for the reacceleration is still poorly constrained. In the secondary scenario, most of the seed electrons are injected via collision of proton cosmic-rays, while non-thermal electrons are directly injected in the primary scenario. In this paper, we examine the two scenarios for the seed electrons with the observed statistical properties of RHs, combining two methods: following the temporal evolutions of t…
Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers at High Redshift: Predictions for LISA and LGWA from SEEDZ
Maynooth University（梅努斯大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）；University of Hertfordshire（赫特福德大学）；University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）；University College Cork（科克大学学院）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）
Black hole merger rates for LISA and LGWA from semi-analytical modelling of light seeds
INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera（意大利国家天体物理研究所布雷拉天文台）；University of Modena & Reggio Emilia（摩德纳与雷焦艾米利亚大学）；INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (IAPS)（意大利国家天体物理研究所空间天体物理学与行星科学研究所）；Università degli Studi di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚天文台与空间科学观测站）；INFN, Sezione di Milano-Bicocca（意大利国家核物理学院米兰-比可卡分部）；Como Lake centre for AstroPhysics (CLAP), DiSAT, Università dell’Insubria（因苏布里亚大学迪萨特系科莫湖天体物理中心）；Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（意大利国家天体物理研究所罗马天文台）；Università degli Studi di Trieste（的里雅斯特大学）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste（意大利国家天体物理研究所的里雅斯特天文台）；INFN, Sezione di Trieste（意大利国家核物理学院的里雅斯特分部）
Deciphering the formation of supermassive black holes~(SMBHs) is a key science goal for upcoming observational facilities. In most theoretical channels proposed so far, the seed formation depends crucially on local gas conditions. We systematically characterize the impact of a range of gas based black hole seeding prescriptions on SMBH populations using cosmological simulations. Seeds of mass $M_{\mathrm{seed}}\sim 10^3-10^{6}~M_{\odot}/h$ are placed in halos that exceed critical thresholds for star-forming, metal-poor gas mass and halo mass (defined as $\tilde{M}_{\mathrm{sf,mp}}$ and $\tilde…
We investigate the abundance of Super-Massive Black Hole (SMBH) seeds in primordial galaxy halos. We explore the assumption that dark matter halos outgrowing a critical halo mass M_c have some probability p of having spawned a SMBH seed. Current observations of local, intermediate-mass galaxies constrain these parameters: For $M_c=10^{11}M_\odot$, all halos must be seeded, but when adopting smaller M_c masses the seeding can be much less efficient. The constraints also put lower limits on the number density of black holes in the local and high-redshift Universe. Reproducing z~6 quasar space de…
We investigate the formation and growth of massive black hole (BH) seeds in dusty star-forming galaxies, relying and extending the framework proposed by Boco et al. 2020. Specifically, the latter envisages the migration of stellar compact remnants (neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes) via gaseous dynamical friction towards the galaxy nuclear region, and their subsequent merging to grow a massive central BH seed. In this paper we add two relevant ingredients: (i) we include primordial BHs, that could constitute a fraction $f_{\rm pBH}$ of the dark matter, as an additional component parti…
Radio relics in galaxy clusters are extended synchrotron sources produced by cosmic-ray electrons in the $μ$G magnetic field. Many relics are found in the cluster periphery and have a cluster-centric, narrow arc-like shape, which suggests that the electrons are accelerated or re-accelerated by merger shock fronts propagating outward in the intracluster plasma. In the X-ray, some relics do exhibit such shocks at the location of the relic, but many do not. We explore the possibility that radio relics trace not the shock fronts but the shape of the underlying distribution of seed relativistic ele…
Detection of massive binary black hole (BBH) mergers at high redshifts is a target for LISA space mission. While the individual masses of a BBH merger are redshifted, the mass ratio of BBH mergers is independent of their redshift. Therefore, if there is an independent correlation between the mass ratio and redshift, such a relationship can be used to i) infer the redshift of the merging binaries, and together with the luminosity distance measurement ($D_L$), constrain the expansion rate of the universe at high redshifts $H(z)$, and ii) constrain models of supermassive black hole seed formation…
Giant radio relics are arc-like structures of diffuse, non-thermal synchrotron radiation that trace shock waves induced by galaxy cluster mergers. The particle (re-)acceleration mechanism producing such radio relics is unclear. One major open question is whether relics can be formed directly from a population of thermal seed electrons, or if pre-existing relativistic seed electrons are required. In some cases AGN can provide such a population of sub-GeV electrons. However, it is unclear how common this connection is. In this paper we present LOFAR 140 MHz and VLA L-band radio observations, as …
First Light And Reionization Epoch Simulations (FLARES) -- XIX: Supermassive black hole mergers in the early Universe and their environmental dependence
本研究利用 FLARES 宇宙学流体动力学放大模拟分析 $z=5$–10 的 SMBH 并合及其环境依赖，并预测 LISA 对高红移并合事件的探测率与模型敏感性。
We present an alternative formation scenario for the gravitational wave event GW190521, that can be explained as the merger of central black holes from two ultra-dwarf galaxies of stellar mass $\sim 10^5-10^6 ~M_\odot$, which had themselves previously undergone a merger. The GW190521 components' masses of $85^{+21}_{-14}M_\odot$ and $66^{+17}_{-18}M_\odot$ challenge standard stellar evolution models, as they fall in the so-called mass gap. We demonstrate that the merger history of ultra-dwarf galaxies at high redshifts ($1\lesssim z \lesssim 2$) matches well the LIGO/Virgo inferred merger rate…
The role of major mergers in triggering super-Eddington accretion
Dipartimento di Fisica, “Sapienza” Università di Roma（罗马大学物理系）；INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（罗马天文台）；INFN, Sezione Roma1（罗马第一国家核物理研究所）；Sapienza School for Advanced Studies（萨皮恩扎高等研究学院）；Como Lake Center for Astrophysics, DiSAT, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria（因苏布里亚大学迪萨特科莫湖天体物理学中心）；INFN, Sezione di Milano-Bicocca（米兰比可卡国家核物理研究所）；INAF, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（博洛尼亚空间天体物理学与科学天文台）
We present our analysis of a set of populations of massive black hole (MBH) binaries generated in the recent semi-analytic model of galaxy evolution (SHARK). We focus on studying gravitational wave (GW) emission produced during MBH mergers in terms of their detectability with current and future detectors, namely, Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) and Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The key advantage of SHARK is that it provides a way to explore a number of distinct models of MBH and galaxy evolution processes within a consistent framework and it was also successfully tested against curren…
A two-phase model of galaxy formation: IV. Seeding and growing supermassive black holes in dark matter halos
Nanjing University（南京大学）；Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nanjing University, Ministry of Education（南京大学现代天文与天体物理教育部重点实验室）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst（美国马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校天文学系）
Strong-lensing effects in high-redshift massive black-hole binary population inference
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学杭州高等研究院）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海天文台）
We have performed cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the effect of fragmentation on the SMBH seed mass in the direct collapse formation scenario. We considered different background UV intensities, host halo spin, and halo merger histories. Our simulations in low-spin halos, in the presence of a strong UV background are consistent with the Direct Collapse Black Hole model, in which a single massive object $\sim10^5$ M$_{\odot}$ is formed in the center of a proto-galaxy. While in our simulations under the presence of a low UV background, we find fragmentation and the formation of var…
We revisit the predictions for the merger rate of massive black hole binaries detectable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and their background signal for pulsar-timing arrays. We focus on the effect of the delays between the merger of galaxies and the final coalescence of black hole binaries, and on supernova feedback on the black hole growth. By utilizing a semi-analytic galaxy formation model, not only do we account for the driving the evolution of binaries at separations $\lesssim 1$ pc (gas-driven migration, stellar hardening and triple/quadruple massive black hole systems)…
