The emergence and ionizing feedback of Pop III.1 stars as progenitors for supermassive black holes
Journal article, 2025
Recent observations by James Webb Space Telescope reveal an unexpectedly abundant population of rapidly growing supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early Universe, underscoring the need for improved models for their origin and growth. Employing new full radiative transfer hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation, we investigate the local and intergalactic feedback of SMBH progenitors for the Population III.1 (Pop III.1) scenario, i.e. efficient formation of supermassive stars from pristine, undisturbed dark matter minihaloes. Our cosmological simulations capture the R-type expansion phase of these Pop III.1 stars, with their H-ionizing photon luminosities of generating H ii regions that extend deep into the intergalactic medium, reaching comoving radii of. We vary both the Pop III.1 ionization flux and cosmological formation environments, finding the former regulates their final, whereas the latter is more important in setting their formation redshift. We use the results from our radiation-hydrodynamics simulations to estimate the cosmic number density of SMBHs, expected from Pop III.1 progenitors. We find, consistent with the results inferred from recent observations of the local and high-redshift universe. Overall, this establishes Pop III.1 progenitors as viable candidates for the formation of the first SMBH, and emphasizes the importance of exploring heavy mass seed scenarios.
quasars: supermassive black holes
methods: numerical
stars: Population III
radiative transfer
Author
Mahsa Sanati
University of Oxford
Jonathan Tan
University of Virginia
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment
Julien Devriendt
University of Oxford
Adrianne Slyz
University of Oxford
Sergio Martin-Alvarez
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
Matteo La Torre
University of Trieste
Benjamin W. Keller
University of Memphis
Maya Petkova
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Pierluigi Monaco
Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
University of Trieste
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
Vieri Cammelli
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Jasbir Singh
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Matthew J. Hayes
Oskar Klein Centre
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
00358711 (ISSN) 13652966 (eISSN)
Vol. 542 2 1532-1543Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
DOI
10.1093/mnras/staf1313