Finding Direct-collapse Black Holes at Birth

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  • Daniel J. Whalen
  • Marco Surace
  • Carla Bernhardt
  • Erik Zackrisson
  • Fabio Pacucci
  • Bodo Ziegler
  • Michaela Hirschmann

Direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) are currently one of the leading contenders for the origins of the first quasars in the universe, over 300 of which have now been found at z > 6. But the birth of a DCBH in an atomically cooling halo does not by itself guarantee it will become a quasar by z similar to 7, the halo must also be located in cold accretion flows or later merge with a series of other gas-rich halos capable of fueling the BH's rapid growth. Here, we present near-infrared luminosities for DCBHs born in cold accretion flows in which they are destined to grow to 10(9) M-circle dot by z similar to 7. Our observables, which are derived from cosmological simulations with radiation hydrodynamics with Enzo, reveal that DCBHs could be found by the James Webb Space Telescope at z less than or similar to 20 and strongly lensed DCBHs might be found in future wide-field surveys by Euclid and the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope at z less than or similar to 15.

Original languageEnglish
Article number16
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume897
Issue number1
Number of pages5
ISSN2041-8205
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2020

    Research areas

  • Intermediate-mass black holes, Supermassive black holes, Quasars, Population III stars, Primordial galaxies, High-redshift galaxies, OBSERVATIONAL SIGNATURES, EVOLUTION, REDSHIFT, GROWTH, HALOES, DARK

ID: 245664882