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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    The Ohio State University)

  • A. Escala

    (Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago 7550000, Chile
    Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), Stanford University, 2575 Sand Hill Road MS 29 Menlo Park, California 94025, USA)

  • S. Callegari

    (Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zürich, 190 Winterthurestrasse, Zürich 8057, Switzerland)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • L. Mayer & S. Kazantzidis & A. Escala & S. Callegari, 2010. "Direct formation of supermassive black holes via multi-scale gas inflows in galaxy mergers," Nature, Nature, vol. 466(7310), pages 1082-1084, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:466:y:2010:i:7310:d:10.1038_nature09294
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09294
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