未受污染的原子冷却暗晕可能是原初类星体形成的场所，因为原子冷却会触发快速重子坍缩，可形成10⁴-10⁵倍太阳质量（M☉）的黑洞种子。然而，此前从未有数值模拟追踪这些暗晕的坍缩过程达到形成超大质量恒星和直接坍缩黑洞（direct-collapse black holes, DCBHs）所需的时长。我们现已对具有广泛自旋参数和组装历史的原子冷却暗晕中的重子坍缩进行了建模，模拟时长足以形成DCBHs。在约50万年（kyr）后，吸积盘的碎裂在这些暗晕中几乎普遍存在，且在大多数情况下会导致双星或多超大质量恒星系统的形成。研究还证实，快速重子坍缩会持续进行，时长足以让这些恒星形成DCBHs。我们的模拟表明，在原初宇宙中，双星甚至多DCBH的形成是普遍规律而非例外情况。
英文摘要：
Pristine, atomically-cooled haloes may be the sites of primordial quasar formation because atomic cooling triggers rapid baryon collapse that can create 10$^4$ - 10$^5$ M$_{\odot}$ black hole seeds. However, no numerical simulation has ever followed the collapse of these haloes for the times required to form supermassive stars and direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs). We have now modeled baryon collapse in atomically-cooled haloes with a wide range of spin parameters and assembly histories for times that are sufficient for DCBH formation. Fragmentation of accretion disks after $\sim$ 500 kyr is nearly ubiquitous in these haloes and in most cases leads to the formation of binary or multiple supermassive stellar systems. They also confirm that rapid baryon collapse proceeds for the times required for these stars to form DCBHs. Our simulations suggest that binary or even multiple DCBH formation was the rule rather than the exception in the primordial Universe.
Supermassive stars born in pristine environments in the early Universe hold the promise of being the seeds for the supermassive black holes observed as high redshift quasars shortly after the epoch of reionisation. H$_2$ suppression is thought to be crucial in order to negate normal Population III star formation and allow high accretion rates to drive the formation of supermassive stars. Only in the cases where vigorous fragmentation is avoided will a monolithic collapse be successful giving rise to a single massive central object. We investigate the number of fragmentation sites formed in col…
A near pristine atomic cooling halo close to a star forming galaxy offers a natural pathway for forming massive direct collapse black hole (DCBH) seeds which could be the progenitors of the $z>6$ redshift quasars. The close proximity of the haloes enables a sufficient Lyman-Werner flux to effectively dissociate H$_2$ in the core of the atomic cooling halo. A mild background may also be required to delay star formation in the atomic cooling halo, often attributed to distant background galaxies. In this letter we investigate the impact of metal enrichment from both the background galaxies and th…
We investigate the environment in which direct-collapse black holes may form by analysing a cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation that is part of the First Billion Years project. This simulation includes the most relevant physical processes leading to direct collapse of haloes, most importantly, molecular hydrogen depletion by dissociation of $H_2$ and $H^-$ from the evolving Lyman-Werner radiation field. We selected a sample of pristine atomic cooling haloes that have never formed stars in their past, have not been polluted with heavy elements and are cooling predominantly via atomic hydrog…
Direct collapse black holes forming in pristine, atomically-cooling haloes at $z \approx 10-20$ may act as the seeds of supermassive black holes (BH) at high redshifts. In order to create a massive BH seed, the host halo needs to be prevented from forming stars. H$_2$ therefore needs to be irradiated by a large flux of Lyman-Werner (LW) UV photons in order to suppress H$_2$ cooling. A key uncertainty in this scenario is the escape fraction of LW radiation from first galaxies, the dominant source of UV photons at this epoch. To better constrain this escape fraction, we have performed radiation-…
We study the impact of neutral hydrogen absorption on ${\rm H_2}$ photodissociation in protogalactic haloes exposed to soft-UV radiation. Lyman-series absorption can significantly deplete dissociating photons as line overlap with the ${\rm H_2}$ Lyman-Werner bands occurs for neutral column densities exceeding $10^{22}$ ${\rm cm^{-2}}$, but this effect has not been previously included in studies of protogalactic haloes. We use high-resolution three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to investigate this "HI-shielding" in three metal-free atomic cooling haloes collapsing at redshift $z \sim 10-…
The formation of Population III (Pop III) stars is a critical step in the evolution of the early universe. To understand how these stars affected their metal-enriched descendants, the details of how, why and where Pop III formation takes place needs to be determined. One of the processes that is assumed to greatly affect the formation of Pop III stars is the presence of a Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation background, that destroys H$_2$, a necessary coolant in the creation of Pop III stars. Self-shielding can alleviate the effect the LW background has on the H$_2$ within haloes. In this work, we per…
The leading contenders for the seeds of $z > 6$ quasars are direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) forming in atomically-cooled halos at $z \sim$ 20. However, the Lyman-Werner (LW) UV background required to form DCBHs of 10$^5$ \Ms\ are extreme, about 10$^4$ J$_{21}$, and may have been rare in the early universe. Here we investigate the formation of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) under moderate LW backgrounds of 100 and 500 J$_{21}$ that were much more common at early times. These backgrounds allow halos to grow to a few 10$^6$ - 10$^7$ \Ms\ and virial temperatures of nearly 10$^4$ K befor…
Direct collapse black holes (DCBHs) formed from the collapse of atomically-cooled primordial gas in the early Universe are strong candidates for the seeds of supermassive BHs. DCBHs are thought to form in atomic cooling haloes in the presence of a strong molecule-dissociating, Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation field. Given that star forming galaxies are likely to be the source of the LW radiation in this scenario, ionizing radiation from these galaxies may accompany the LW radiation. We present cosmological simulations resolving the collapse of primordial gas into an atomic cooling halo, including t…
We present the highest-resolution three-dimensional simulation to date of the collapse of an atomic cooling halo in the early Universe. We use the moving-mesh code arepo with the primordial chemistry module introduced in Greif (2014), which evolves the chemical and thermal rate equations for over more than 20 orders of magnitude in density. Molecular hydrogen cooling is suppressed by a strong Lyman-Werner background, which facilitates the near-isothermal collapse of the gas at a temperature of about $10^4\,$K. Once the central gas cloud becomes optically thick to continuum emission, it settles…
We present cosmological hydrodynamical simulations including atomic and molecular non-equilibrium chemistry, multi-frequency radiative transfer (0.7-100 eV sampled over 150 frequency bins) and stellar population evolution to investigate the host candidates of the seeds of supermassive black holes coming from direct collapse of gas in primordial haloes (direct-collapse black holes, DCBHs). We consistently address the role played by atomic and molecular cooling, stellar radiation and metal spreading of C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ca, Fe, etc. from primordial sources, as well as their implications fo…
We use cosmological hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations and semi-analytical models to study the effects of primordial black holes (PBHs) on first star formation. Our models self-consistently combine two competing effects: initial (isocurvature) perturbations induced by PBHs and BH accretion feedback. Focusing on PBHs with masses $\sim 30\ \rm M_{\odot}$, we find that the standard picture of first star formation in molecular-cooling minihaloes is not changed by PBHs, as the simulated star-forming gas clouds in the central parsec are very similar to those in the $\rm ΛCDM$ case when PBHs make up $f…
High redshift quasars emit copious X-ray photons which heat the intergalactic medium to temperatures up to $\sim$ 10$^6$ K. At such high temperatures the primordial gas will not form stars until it is assembled into dark matter haloes with masses of up to $\sim$ 10$^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$, at which point the hot gas collapses and cools under the influence of gravity. Once this occurs, there is a massive reservoir of primordial gas from which stars can form, potentially setting the stage for the brightest Population (Pop) III starbursts in the early Universe. Supporting this scenario, recent observa…
The Direct Collapse Black Hole (DCBH) scenario provides a solution for forming the massive black holes powering bright quasars observed in the early Universe. A prerequisite for forming a DCBH is that the formation of (much less massive) Population III stars be avoided - this can be achieved by destroying H$_2$ via Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation (E$_{\rm{LW}}$ = 12.6 eV). We find that two conditions must be met in the proto-galaxy that will host the DCBH. First, prior star formation must be delayed; this can be achieved with a background LW flux of J$_{\rm BG} \gtrsim 100\ J_{21}$. Second, an int…
Supermassive stars forming at $z \sim$ 15 - 20 are one of the leading contenders for the origin of the first quasars, over 200 of which have now been discovered at $z >$ 6. These stars likely form in pristine, atomically cooled haloes immersed in strong Lyman-Werner UV backgrounds or in highly supersonic baryon streaming flows. Atomic cooling triggers catastrophic baryon collapse capable of building up stars at rates of up to $\sim$1 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. Here we examine the evolution of supermassive stars with a much larger and finer grid of accretion rates than in previous studies with the …
The cosmic near-infrared background (NIRB) offers a powerful integral probe of radiative processes at different cosmic epochs, including the pre-reionization era when metal-free, Population III (Pop III) stars first formed. While the radiation from metal-enriched, Population II (Pop II) stars likely dominates the contribution to the observed NIRB from the reionization era, Pop III stars -- if formed efficiently -- might leave characteristic imprints on the NIRB thanks to their strong Ly$α$ emission. Using a physically-motivated model of first star formation, we provide an analysis of the NIRB …
MEGATRON: The environments of Population III stars at Cosmic Dawn and their connection to present day galaxies
University of Oxford（牛津大学）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne Université, CNRS（巴黎天体物理研究所，索邦大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；University of Bath（巴斯大学）；Lund University（隆德大学）；Yonsei University（延世大学）
Context. The seeds of the first supermassive black holes may have resulted from the direct collapse of hot primordial gas in $\gtrsim 10^4$ K haloes, forming a supermassive or quasistar as an intermediate stage. Aims. We explore the formation of a protostar resulting from the collapse of primordial gas in the presence of a strong Lyman-Werner radiation background. Particularly, we investigate the impact of turbulence and rotation on the fragmentation behaviour of the gas cloud. We accomplish this goal by varying the initial turbulent and rotational velocities. Methods. We performed 3D adaptive…
