4,287 research outputs found
Magnetic fields in primordial accretion disks
Magnetic fields are considered as a vital ingredient of contemporary star
formation, and may have been important during the formation of the first stars
in the presence of an efficient amplification mechanism. Initial seed fields
are provided via plasma fluctuations, and are subsequently amplified by the
small-scale dynamo, leading to a strong tangled magnetic field. Here we explore
how the magnetic field provided by the small-scale dynamo is further amplified
via the dynamo in a protostellar disk and assess its
implications. For this purpose, we consider two characteristic cases, a typical
Pop.~III star with ~M and an accretion rate of
~M~yr, and a supermassive star with ~M
and an accretion rate of ~M~yr. For the ~M
Pop.~III star, we find that coherent magnetic fields can be produced on scales
of at least ~AU, which are sufficient to drive a jet with a luminosity of
~L and a mass outflow rate of ~M~yr. For
the supermassive star, the dynamical timescales in its environment are even
shorter, implying smaller orbital timescales and an efficient magnetization out
to at least ~AU. The jet luminosity corresponds to
~L, and a mass outflow rate of
~M~yr. We expect that the feedback from the
supermassive star can have a relevant impact on its host galaxy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, comments are
still welcom
The formation of supermassive black holes in rapidly rotating disks
Massive primordial halos exposed to moderate UV backgrounds are the potential
birthplaces of supermassive black holes. In such a halo, an initially
isothermal collapse will occur, leading to high accretion rates of
~M~yr. During the collapse, the gas in the interior
will turn into a molecular state, and form an accretion disk due to the
conservation of angular momentum. We consider here the structure of such an
accretion disk and the role of viscous heating in the presence of high
accretion rates for a central star of , and ~M. Our
results show that the temperature in the disk increases considerably due to
viscous heating, leading to a transition from the molecular to the atomic
cooling phase. We found that the atomic cooling regime may extend out to
several ~AU for a ~M central star and provides substantial
support to stabilize the disk. It therefore favors the formation of a massive
central object. The comparison of clump migration and contraction time scales
shows that stellar feedback from these clumps may occur during the later stages
of the evolution. Overall, viscous heating provides an important pathway to
obtain an atomic gas phase within the center of the halo, and helps in the
formation of very massive objects. The latter may collapse to form a massive
black hole of about ~M.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, comments are
still welcom
Witnessing the birth of a supermassive protostar
The detection of quasars reveals the existence of supermassive
black holes of a few . One of the potential pathways to
explain their formation in the infant universe is the so-called direct collapse
model which provides massive seeds of . An isothermal
direct collapse mandates that halos should be of a primordial composition and
the formation of molecular hydrogen remains suppressed in the presence of a
strong Lyman Werner flux. In this study, we perform high resolution
cosmological simulations for two massive primordial halos employing a detailed
chemical model which includes cooling as well as realistic opacities
for both the bound-free emission and the Rayleigh scattering of
hydrogen atoms. We are able to resolve the collapse up to unprecedentedly high
densities of and to scales of about AU.
Our results show that the gas cools down to 5000 K in the presence
of cooling, and induces fragmentation at scales of about 8000 AU in
one of the two simulated halos, which may lead to the formation of a binary. In
addition, fragmentation also occurs on the AU scale in one of the halos but the
clumps are expected to merge on short time scales. Our results confirm that
cooling does not prevent the formation of a supermassive star and the
trapping of cooling radiation stabilises the collapse on small scales.Comment: Accpeted version, to appear in MNRAS, comments are still welcome and
high resolution version is available at
http://www2.iap.fr/users/latif/DCBH.pd
Initial mass function of intermediate mass black hole seeds
We study the Initial Mass Function (IMF) and host halo properties of
Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBH, 10^{4-6} Msun) formed inside metal-free,
UV illuminated atomic cooling haloes (virial temperature T_vir > 10^4 K) either
via the direct collapse of the gas or via an intermediate Super Massive Star
(SMS) stage. We achieve this goal in three steps: (a) we derive the gas
accretion rate for a proto-SMS to undergo General Relativity instability and
produce a direct collapse black hole (DCBH) or to enter the ZAMS and later
collapse into a IMBH; (b) we use merger-tree simulations to select atomic
cooling halos in which either a DCBH or SMS can form and grow, accounting for
metal enrichment and major mergers that halt the growth of the proto-SMS by gas
fragmentation. We derive the properties of the host halos and the mass
distribution of black holes at this stage, and dub it the "Birth Mass
Function"; (c) we follow the further growth of the DCBH due to accretion of
leftover gas in the parent halo and compute the final IMBH mass.We consider two
extreme cases in which minihalos (T_vir < 10^4 K) can (fertile) or cannot
(sterile) form stars and pollute their gas leading to a different IMBH IMF. In
the (fiducial) fertile case the IMF is bimodal extending over a broad range of
masses, M= (0.5-20)x10^5 Msun, and the DCBH accretion phase lasts from 10 to
100 Myr. If minihalos are sterile, the IMF spans the narrower mass range M=
(1-2.8)x10^6 Msun, and the DCBH accretion phase is more extended (70-120 Myr).
We conclude that a good seeding prescription is to populate halos (a) of mass
7.5 < log (M_h/Msun) < 8, (b) in the redshift range 8 < z < 17, (c) with IMBH
in the mass range 4.75 < log (M_BH/Msun) < 6.25.Comment: MNRAS, in press. Comments welcom
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