arXiv subjects

Sunmyon Chon

Publications and source records attributed to Sunmyon Chon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Formation of Heavy Seed Black Holes and Little Red Dots-like Compact Clusters in Metal-enriched Star-forming Regions

The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early Universe remains uncertain. While the classical direct-collapse scenario requires pristine gas exposed to intense Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation, recent JWST observations suggest that early growing BHs may reside in compact, metal-enriched environments. We investigate early BH formation using a cosmological radiation-hydrodynamic simulation that self-consistently follows the formation and evolution of rapidly accreting supermassive stars (SMSs). We find that intense LW radiation develops in clustered star-forming regions; by the time the first heavy seed forms, the mass-weighted internal intensity has reached $J_{21}\sim1000$. Most seeds form in weakly metal-enriched gas with [Z/H]$\sim-3$ to $-2$, because the strongest LW fields occur in regions already enriched by previous stellar feedback. All halos above $10^9M_\odot$ in our zoom-in region host a BH more massive than $10^5M_\odot$. We construct stellar spectra using MIST/PHOENIX libraries for normal stars and $6000~\mathrm{K}$ blackbody spectra for bloated SMSs. Five of eight massive clusters with stellar masses larger than $10^6~M_\odot$ exhibit intrinsically V-shaped spectra similar to those of Little Red Dots (LRDs). In the most prominent cases, luminous SMSs dominate the red optical emission, although Balmer breaks in normal stellar populations also contribute. We also identify off-center LRD-like systems in our simulation resembling those recently reported in strongly lensed observations. Our results suggest that heavy-seed formation, compact-cluster formation, and LRD-like continuum emission are linked outcomes of clustered, weakly metal-enriched, strongly irradiated environments.

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arXiv2026

Formation of massive multiple-star systems: early migration and mergers

Massive stars are often found in multiple systems, yet how binary-star systems with very close separations ($\lesssim$ au) assemble remains unresolved. We investigate the formation and inward migration of massive-star binaries in Solar-metallicity environments using the star-cluster formation simulation of Chon et al. (2024), which forms a $1200\,M_\odot$ stellar cluster and resolves binaries down to 1 au separation. Our results indicate that stars more massive than $2\,M_{\odot}$ predominantly assemble in binary or triple configurations, in agreement with observations, with member stars forming nearly coevally. In most of these systems, the inner binary hardens by one to three orders of magnitude and reaches a steady-state within the first $0.1\,$Myr. Notably, all binaries whose final separations are below 10 au are hardened with the aid of circumbinary discs, highlighting disc-driven migration as a key to produce tight massive binaries. We further find that binaries form with random inclinations relative to the initial rotation axis of the cloud, and that mutual inclinations in triple systems follow an isotropic distribution, implying that stochastic interactions driven by turbulence and few-body dynamics are crucial during assembly and migration. Finally, stars with $M>2\,M_{\odot}$ often undergo repeated merger events during cluster evolution, yielding extreme mass ratios ($q<0.1$). Some of these products may evolve into compact-object binaries containing a black hole or neutron star, including X-ray binaries and systems detectable by Gaia.

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arXiv2026

Rapid emergence of overmassive black holes in the early Universe

The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) remains a long-standing problem in astrophysics. Recent JWST observations reveal an unexpectedly abundant population of overmassive black holes at z>4-6, where the BH masses lie far above local scaling relations and not reproduced by current cosmological models. How such overmassive black holes form and rapidly grow within young galaxies has remained unclear. Here we present fully cosmological radiation-hydrodynamic simulations that, for the first time, self-consistently follow the birth, early growth, and emergent observable signatures of SMBHs in proto-cluster environments. We find that heavy seeds of order $10^6 M_\text{sun}$ naturally form, exceeding typical theoretical expectations by an order of magnitude. These seeds rapidly develop dense, optically thick disks whose strong electron scattering produces broad H$\alpha$ emission comparable to that seen in little red dots (LRDs). Sustained super-Eddington accretion then drives fast growth to $\sim 3 \times 10^7 ~M_\text{sun}$ by $z \sim 8$. These results provide a unified physical scenario in which LRDs correspond to a short-lived, enshrouded phase of heavy-seed formation, naturally evolving into the overmassive quasars detected by JWST and ultimately the progenitors of today's SMBHs.

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arXiv2025

Growth of Metal-Enriched Supermassive Stars by Accretion and Collisions

Supermassive stars (SMSs) are candidate progenitors of massive black hole seeds and may contribute to anomalous abundance patterns in high-redshift galaxies and globular clusters. Recent radiation-hydrodynamic simulations indicate that SMSs can form at finite metallicity, not only in metal-free direct-collapse conditions. We model SMS growth with \textsc{GENEC} over $Z/Z_\odot=10^{-5}$-$10^{-2}$ using simulation-motivated accretion histories. The final masses reach $\sim7.2\times10^{4}\,M_\odot$ at $10^{-5}\,Z_\odot$ and $\sim2.3\times10^{3}\,M_\odot$ at $10^{-2}\,Z_\odot$. Models are evolved through the pre-main sequence and core H-burning phases, terminating at the onset of general-relativistic instability for $Z\lesssim10^{-4}\,Z_\odot$ or at core He exhaustion for $Z\gtrsim10^{-3}\,Z_\odot$. The dominant mass growth channel transitions from collision-driven to accretion-driven between $Z=10^{-4}$ and $10^{-3}$. With stellar lifetimes remaining nearly constant at $1.8$-$2.0$ Myr, collisions do not significantly rejuvenate the star, implying that collision driven runaway collapse cannot proceed in isolation and must be supplemented, and likely dominated by gas accretion. We further compute the critical inflow rate required to keep the stellar envelope inflated, $\dot{M}_{\rm crit}$, which decreases with increasing $Z$ and decreasing central mass fraction of hydrogen ($X_{\rm c}$). The critical rate falls below $10^{-5}\,M_\odot\,{\rm yr^{-1}}$ at $X_{\rm c}=0.60$ for $10^{-2}Z_\odot$. This indicates that SMSs with $0.01~Z_\odot$ are cool supergiants during most of their lifetimes, where UV photon emissivity and radiative feedback is strongly suppressed. Overall, SMS evolution remains viable up to $Z\simeq0.01\,Z_\odot$, supporting SMS formation in proto-globular clusters and other metal-enriched dense environments.

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arXiv2024

Formation of supermassive stars and dense star clusters in metal-poor clouds exposed to strong FUV radiation

The direct collapse scenario, which predicts the formation of supermassive stars (SMSs) as precursors to supermassive black holes (SMBHs), has been explored primarily under the assumption of metal-free conditions. However, environments exposed to strong far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation, which is another requirement for the direct collapse, are often chemically enriched to varying degrees. In this study, we perform radiation hydrodynamic simulations of star-cluster formation in clouds with finite metallicities, $Z=10^{-6}$ to $10^{-2} Z_{\odot}$, incorporating detailed thermal and chemical processes and radiative feedback from forming stars. Extending the simulations to approximately two million years, we demonstrate that SMSs with masses exceeding $10^4~M_\odot$ can form even in metal-enriched clouds with $Z \lesssim 10^{-3} Z_{\odot}$. The accretion process in these cases, driven by "super-competitive accretion," preferentially channels gas into central massive stars in spite of small (sub-pc) scale fragmentation. At $Z \simeq 10^{-2} Z_{\odot}$, however, enhanced cooling leads to intense fragmentation on larger scales, resulting in the formation of dense star clusters dominated by very massive stars with $10^3 M_{\odot}$ rather than SMSs. These clusters resemble young massive or globular clusters observed in the distant and local universe, exhibiting compact morphologies and high stellar surface densities. Our findings suggest that SMS formation is viable below a metallicity threshold of approximately $10^{-3} Z_{\odot}$, significantly increasing the number density of massive seed black holes to levels sufficient to account for the ubiquitous SMBHs observed in the local universe. Moreover, above this metallicity, this scenario naturally explains the transition from SMS formation to dense stellar cluster formation.

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arXiv2024

Sequential formation of supermassive stars and heavy seed BHs through the interplay of cosmological cold accretion and stellar radiative feedback

Supermassive stars (SMSs) and heavy seed black holes, as their remnants, are promising candidates for Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH) progenitors, especially for ones observed in the early universe $ z\simeq 8.5-10$ by recent JWST observations. Expected cradles of SMSs are the atomic cooling halos ($M_{\rm halo}\simeq 10^7~{\rm M_\odot}$), where "cold accretion" emerges and possibly forms SMSs. We perform a suit of cosmological radiation hydrodynamics simulations and investigate star formation after the emergence of cold accretion, solving radiative feedback from stars inside the halo. We follow the mass growth of the protostars for $\sim 3~{\rm Myr}$, resolving the gas inflow down to $\sim 0.1~{\rm pc}$ scales. We discover that, after cold accretion emerges, multiple SMSs of $m_\star \gtrsim 10^5{\rm M_\odot}$ form at the halo centre with the accretion rates maintained at $\dot{m}_\star \simeq 0.04~{\rm M_\odot}~{\rm yr^{-1}}$ for $\lesssim 3~{\rm Myr}$. Cold accretion supplies gas at a rate of $\dot{M}_{\rm gas}\gtrsim 0.01-0.1~{\rm M_\odot}~{\rm yr^{-1}}$ from outside the halo virial radius to the central gas disc. Gravitational torques from spiral arms transport gas further inward, which feeds the SMSs. Radiative feedback from stars suppresses H$_2$ cooling and disc fragmentation, while photoevaporation is prevented by a dense envelope, which attenuates ionising radiation. Our results suggest that cold accretion can bring efficient BH mass growth after seed formation in the later universe. Moreover, cold accretion and gas migration inside the central disc increase the mass concentration and provide a promising formation site for the extremely compact stellar clusters observed by JWST.

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arXiv2024

Gravitational collapse at low to moderate Mach numbers: The relationship between star formation efficiency and the fraction of mass in the massive object

The formation of massive objects via gravitational collapse is relevant both for explaining the origin of the first supermassive black holes and in the context of massive star formation. Here, we analyze simulations of the formation of massive objects pursued by different groups and in various environments, concerning the formation of supermassive black holes, primordial stars, as well as present-day massive stars. We focus particularly on the regime of small virial parameters, i.e., low ratios of the initial kinetic to gravitational energy, low to moderate Mach numbers, and the phase before feedback is very efficient. We compare the outcomes of collapse under different conditions using dimensionless parameters, particularly the star formation efficiency \epsilon_*, the fraction f_* of mass in the most massive object relative to the total stellar mass, and the fraction f_{\rm tot} of mass of the most massive object as a function of the total mass. We find that in all simulations analyzed here, f_{\rm tot} increases as a function of \epsilon_*, although the steepness of the increase depends on the environment. The relation between f_* and \epsilon_* is found to be more complex and also strongly depends on the number of protostars present at the beginning of the simulations. We show that a collision parameter, estimated as the ratio of the system size divided by the typical collision length, allows us to approximately characterize whether collisions will be important. We analyze the statistical correlation between the dimensionless quantities using the Spearman coefficient and confirm via a machine learning analysis that good predictions of f_* can be obtained from \epsilon_* together with a rough estimate of the collision parameter. This suggests that a good estimate of the mass of the most massive object can be obtained once the maximum efficiency for a given environment is known.

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arXiv2024

Exploring the nature of UV-bright $z \gtrsim 10$ galaxies detected by JWST: star formation, black hole accretion, or a non-universal IMF?

We use the Cosmic Archaeology Tool (CAT) semi-analytical model to explore the contribution of Population (Pop) III/II stars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to the galaxy UV luminosity function (LF) evolution at $4 \leq z \leq 20$. We compare in particular with recent JWST data in order to explore the apparent tension between observations and theoretical models in the number density of bright galaxies at $z \gtrsim 10$. The model predicts a star formation history dominated by UV faint ($M_{\rm UV} > - 18$) galaxies, with a Pop III contribution of $\lesssim 10\%$ ($\lesssim 0.5\%$) at $z \simeq 20$ ($z \simeq 10$). Stars are the primary sources of cosmic reionization, with $5 - 10 \%$ of ionizing photons escaping into the intergalatic medium at $5 \leq z \leq 10$, while the contribution of unobscured AGNs becomes dominant only at $z \lesssim 5$. The predicted stellar and AGN UV LFs reproduce the observational data at $5 \lesssim z \lesssim 9 - 10$. At higher redshift, CAT predicts a steeper evolution in the faint-end slope ($M_{\rm UV} > - 18$), and a number density of bright galaxies ($M_{\rm UV} \simeq -20$) consistent with data at $z \sim 10 - 11$, but smaller by 0.8 dex at $z \sim 12 - 13$, and 1.2 dex at $z \sim 14 - 16$, when compared to the values estimated by recent studies. Including the AGN emission does not affect the above findings, as AGNs contribute at most to $\lesssim 10 \%$ of the total UV luminosity at $M_{\rm UV} < - 19$ and $z \gtrsim 10$. Interestingly, considering a gradual transition in the stellar IMF, modulated by metallicity and redshift as suggested by recent simulations, the model agrees with JWST data at $z \sim 12 - 13$, and the disagreement at $z \sim 14 - 16$ is reduced to 0.5 dex.

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arXiv2023

Impact of radiative feedback on the initial mass function of metal-poor stars

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) in the early universe is essential to understand the formation of ancient galaxies. To this end, we conduct a series of long-term radiation hydrodynamic simulations following star cluster formation, varying the metallicity from $Z/Z_\odot = 10^{-4}$ to $1$. We particularly consider the effects of protostellar radiative feedback, which modify the exact shape of the IMF and determine the star formation efficiency (SFE), i.e. the ratio between the mass in stars and the initial gas mass in the parental cloud. Our results show that the IMF changes from a Salpeter-type to a top-heavy function as the metallicity decreases. When $Z/Z_\odot \lesssim 10^{-2}$, the IMF becomes log-flat and distinct from a Salpeter-like IMF. Stellar feedback is effective in shaping both the low- and high-mass ends of the IMF. Heating of dust grains by stellar radiation suppresses small-scale fragmentation and reduces the number of low-mass stars with $M_* \lesssim 1~M_\odot$ at all metallicities. The ionizing radiation hinders the growth of massive stars, steepening the slope of the IMF at the high-mass end. The resulting feedback is more effective at lower metallicity, and star formation is regulated by stellar radiative feedback, with the SFE decreasing with decreasing metallicity. We suggest that the unexpectedly large number of UV-bright galaxies at $z>10$ reported by JWST observations can be explained by considering star cluster formation at $Z/Z_\odot \sim 10^{-2}$ or $10^{-3}$, where the IMF is top-heavy, but the SFE is not too low due to stellar feedback.

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arXiv2023

First emergence of cold accretion and supermassive star formation in the early universe

We investigate the first emergence of the so-called cold accretion, the accretion flows deeply penetrating a halo, in the early universe with cosmological N-body/SPH simulations. We study the structure of the accretion flow and its evolution within small halos with $\lesssim 10^8~{\rm M}_\odot$ with sufficiently high spatial resolutions down to $\sim 1 \ {\rm pc}$ scale. While previous studies only follow the evolution for a short period after the primordial cloud collapse, we follow the long-term evolution until the cold accretion first appears, employing the sink particle method. We show that the cold accretion emerges when the halo mass exceeds $\sim 2.2\times 10^7 \ {\rm M}_\odot\left\{\left(1+z\right)/15 \right\}^{-3/2}$, the ${\it minimum}$ halo masses above which the accretion flow penetrates halos. We further continue simulations to study whether the cold accretion provides the dense shock waves, which have been proposed to give birth to supermassive stars (SMSs). We find that the accretion flow eventually hits a compact disc near the halo centre, creating dense shocks over a wide area of the disc surface. The resulting post-shock gas becomes dense and hot enough with its mass comparable to the Jeans mass $M_{\rm J}\sim 10^{4-5} \ {\rm M}_\odot$, a sufficient amount to induce the gravitational collapse, leading to the SMS formation.

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arXiv2023

Direct-collapse black hole formation induced by internal radiation of host halos

We estimate the fraction of halos that host supermassive black holes (SMBHs) forming through the direct collapse (DC) scenario by using cosmological N -body simulations combined with a semi-analytic model for galaxy evolution. While in most of earlier studies the occurrence of the DC is limited only in chemically pristine halos, we here suppose that the DC can occur also in halos with metallicity below a threshold value $Z_{\rm th} = 0$--$10^{-3}~{\rm Z}_{\bigodot}$, considering the super-competitive accretion pathway for DC black hole (DCBH) formation. In addition, we consider for the first time the effect of Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation from stars within host halos, i.e., internal radiation. We find that, with low threshold metallicities of $Z_{\rm th} \leq 10^{-4}~{\rm Z}_{\bigodot}$, the inclusion of internal radiation rather reduces the number density of DCBHs from $0.2$--$0.3$ to $0.03$--$0.06~{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$. This is because star formation is suppressed due to self-regulation, and the LW flux emitted by neighboring halos is reduced. Only when $Z_{\rm th}$ is as high as $10^{-3}~{\rm Z}_{\bigodot}$, internal radiation enhances the number density of DCBHs from $0.4$ to $1~{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$, thereby decreasing the threshold halo mass above which at least one DCBH forms from $2\times 10^{9}$ to $9\times 10^{8}~{\rm M}_{\bigodot}$. We also find that halos with $M_{\rm halo} \gtrsim 10^{11}$--$10^{12}~{\rm M}_{\bigodot}$ can host more than one DCBH at $z = 0$. This indicates that the DC scenario alone can explain the observed number of SMBH-hosting galaxies.

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arXiv2022

H1821+643: The most X-ray and infrared luminous AGN in the Swift/BAT survey in the process of rapid stellar and supermassive black hole mass assembly

H1821+643 is the most X-ray luminous non-beamed AGN of $L_\mathrm{14-150 keV}= 5.2\times 10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the Swift/BAT ultra-hard X-ray survey and it is also a hyper-luminous infrared (IR) galaxy $L_\mathrm{IR} = 10^{13.2} L_\odot$ residing in the center of a massive galaxy cluster, which is a unique environment achieving the rapid mass assembly of black holes (BH) and host galaxies in the local universe. We decompose the X-ray to IR spectral energy distribution (SED) into the AGN and starburst component using the SED fitting tool CIGALE-2022.0 and show that H1821+643 consumes a large amount of cold gas ($\dot{M}_\mathrm{con}$) with star-formation rate of $\log ( \mathrm{SFR}/M_{\odot}~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}) = 3.01 \pm 0.04$ and BH accretion rate of $\log (\dot{M}_\mathrm{BH}/M_{\odot}~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}) = 1.20 \pm 0.05$. This high $\dot{M}_\mathrm{con}$ is larger than the cooling rate ($\dot{M}_\mathrm{cool}$) of the intra-cluster medium (ICM), $\dot{M}_\mathrm{con}/\dot{M}_\mathrm{cool} \gtrsim 1$, which is one to two order magnitude higher than the typical value of other systems, indicating that H1821 provides the unique and extreme environment of rapid gas consumption. We also show that H1821+643 has an efficient cooling path achieving from $10^7$ K to $10^2$ K thanks to [OIII] 63 $μ\mathrm{m}$, which is a main coolant in low temperature range ($10^4$ K to $10^2$ K) with a cooling rate of $\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cool}}=3.2\times 10^5\ M_{\odot}\mathrm{~yr^{-1}}$, and the star-forming region extends over 40 kpc scale.

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arXiv2022

Impact of the cosmic background radiation on the initial mass function of metal-poor stars

We study star cluster formation at low metallicities of $Z/Z_\odot=10^{-4}$--$10^{-1}$ using three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations. Particular emphasis is put on how the stellar mass distribution is affected by the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), which sets the temperature floor to the gas. Starting from the collapse of a turbulent cloud, we follow the formation of a protostellar system resolving $\sim$au scale. In relatively metal-enriched cases of $Z/Z_\odot \gtrsim 10^{-2}$, where the mass function resembles the present-day one in the absence of the CMB, high temperature CMB suppresses cloud fragmentation and reduces the number of low-mass stars, making the mass function more top-heavy than in the cases without CMB heating at $z\gtrsim10$. In lower-metallicity cases with $Z/Z_\odot \lesssim 10^{-3}$, where the gas temperature is higher than the CMB value due to inefficient cooling, the CMB has only a minor impact on the mass distribution, which is top-heavy regardless of the redshift. In cases either with a low metallicity of $Z/Z_\odot \lesssim 10^{-2}$ or at a high redshift $z\gtrsim10$, the mass spectrum consists of a low-mass Salpeter-like component, peaking at $0.1~M_\odot$, and a top-heavy component with $10$--$50~M_\odot$, with the fraction in the latter increasing with increasing redshift. In galaxies forming at $z\gtrsim10$, the major targets of the future instruments including JWST, CMB heating makes the stellar mass function significantly top-heavy, enhancing the number of supernova explosions by a factor of $1.4$ ($2.8$) at $z=10$ ($20$, respectively) compared to the prediction by Chabrier initial mass function when $Z/Z_\odot=0.1$.

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arXiv2021

Transition of the initial mass function in the metal-poor environments

We study star cluster formation in a low-metallicity environment using three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. Starting from a turbulent cloud core, we follow the formation and growth of protostellar systems with different metallicities ranging from $10^{-6}$ to $0.1~Z_{\odot}$. The cooling induced by dust grains promotes fragmentation at small scales and the formation of low-mass stars with $M_{*} \sim 0.01$--$0.1~M_{\odot}$ when $Z/Z_{\odot} \gtrsim 10^{-5}$. While the number of low-mass stars increases with metallicity, the stellar mass distribution is still top-heavy for $Z/Z_{\odot} \lesssim 10^{-2}$ compared to the Chabrier initial mass function (IMF). In these cases, star formation begins after the turbulent motion decays and a single massive cloud core monolithically collapses to form a central massive stellar system. The circumstellar disk preferentially feeds the mass to the central massive stars, making the mass distribution top-heavy. When $Z/Z_{\odot}=0.1$, collisions of the turbulent flows promote the onset of the star formation and a highly filamentary structure develops owing to efficient fine-structure line cooling. In this case, the mass supply to the massive stars is limited by the local gas reservoir and the mass is shared among the stars, leading to a Chabrier-like IMF. We conclude that cooling at the scales of the turbulent motion promotes the development of the filamentary structure and works as an important factor leading to the present-day IMF.

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arXiv2020

Disk fragmentation and intermittent accretion onto supermassive stars

Supermassive stars (SMSs) with $\sim10^{4-5}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ are candidate objects for the origin of supermassive black holes observed at redshift $z$>6. They are supposed to form in primordial-gas clouds that provide the central stars with gas at a high accretion rate, but their growth may be terminated in the middle due to the stellar ionizing radiation if the accretion is intermittent and its quiescent periods are longer than the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) timescales at the stellar surfaces. In this paper, we examine the role of the ionizing radiation feedback based on the accretion history in two possible SMS-forming clouds extracted from cosmological simulations, following their evolution with vertically-integrated two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations with detailed thermal and chemical models. The consistent treatment of the gas thermal evolution is crucial for obtaining the realistic accretion history, as we demonstrate by performing an additional run with a barotropic equation of state, in which the fluctuation of the accretion rate is artificially suppressed. We find that although the accretion becomes intermittent due to the formation of spiral arms and clumps in gravitationally unstable disks, the quiescent periods are always shorter than the KH timescales, implying that SMSs can form without affected by the ionizing radiation.

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arXiv2020

Cosmological DCBH formation sites hostile for their growth

The direct collapse (DC) is a promising mechanism that provides massive seed black holes (BHs) with $\sim 10^{5}~M_{\odot}$ in the early universe. To study a long-term accretion growth of a DCBH thus formed, we perform cosmological radiation-hydrodynamics simulations, extending our previous work where we investigated its formation stage. With a high spatial resolution down below the Bondi radius, we show that the accretion rate onto the BH is far below the Eddington value. Such slow mass growth is partly because of the strong radiative feedback from the accreting BH. Moreover, we find that the BH has a large velocity of $\sim 100~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$ relative to the gas after it falls into the first galaxy, which substantially reduces the accretion rate. The latter effect stems from the fact that the DCBHs form in metal-free environments typically at $\sim 1~$kpc from the galaxy. The BH accelerates as it approaches the galactic center due to the gravity. The relative velocity never damps after that, and the BH does not settle down to the galactic center but continues to wander around it. An analytic estimate predicts that the DCBH formation within $\sim 100$~pc around the galactic center is necessary to decelerate the BH with dynamical friction before $z=7$. Since metal enrichment with $Z \sim 10^{-5} - 10^{-3}~Z_\odot$ is expected in such a case, the formation of DCBHs in the metal-poor environments is preferable for the subsequent rapid growth.

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arXiv2020

Supermassive Star Formation via Super Competitive Accretion in Slightly Metal-enriched Clouds

Direct collapse black hole (DCBH) formation with mass $\gtrsim 10^{5}~M_{\odot}$ is a promising scenario for the origin of high-redshift supermassive black holes. It has usually been supposed that the DCBH can only form in the primordial gas since the metal enrichment enhances the cooling ability and causes the fragmentation into smaller pieces. What actually happens in such an environment, however, has not been explored in detail. Here, we study the impact of the metal enrichment on the clouds, conducting hydrodynamical simulations to follow the cloud evolution in cases with different degree of the metal enrichment $Z/Z_{\odot}=10^{-6}-10^{-3}$. Below $Z/Z_{\odot}=10^{-6}$, metallicity has no effect and supermassive stars form along with a small number of low-mass stars. With more metallicity $Z/Z_{\odot} \gtrsim 5 \times 10^{-6}$, although the dust cooling indeed promotes fragmentation of the cloud core and produces about a few thousand low-mass stars, the accreting flow preferentially feeds the gas to the central massive stars, which grows supermassive as in the primordial case. We term this formation mode as the {\it super competitive accretion}, where only the central few stars grow supermassive while a large number of other stars are competing for the gas reservoir. Once the metallicity exceeds $10^{-3}~Z_{\odot}$ and metal-line cooling becomes operative, the central star cannot grow supermassive due to lowered accretion rate. Supermassive star formation by the super competitive accretion opens up a new window for seed BHs, which relaxes the condition on metallicity and enhances the seed BH abundance.

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arXiv2019

Forming Pop III binaries in self-gravitating disks: how to keep the orbital angular momentum

The disk fragmentation is a possible process leading to the formation of Population III stellar binary systems. However, numerical simulations show diverse fates of the fragments; some evolve into stable binaries and others merge away with a central star. To clarify the physics behind such diversity, we perform a series of three dimensional hydrodynamics simulations in a controlled manner. We insert a point particle mimicking a fragment in a self-gravitating disk, where the initial mass and position are free parameters, and follow the orbital evolution for several tens of orbits. The results show great diversity even with such simple experiments. Some particles shortly merge away after migrating inward, but others survive as the migration stalls with the gap-opening in the disk. We find that our results are well interpreted postulating that the orbital angular momentum is extracted by (i) the gravitational torque from the disk spiral structure, and (ii) tidal disruption of a gravitationally-bound envelope around the particle. Our analytic evaluations show the processes (i) and (ii) are effective in an outer and inner part of the disk respectively. There is a window of the gap-opening in the middle, if the envelope mass is sufficiently large. These all agree with our numerical results. We further show that the binaries, which appear for the "survival" cases, gradually expand while accreting the disk gas. Our theoretical framework is freely scalable to be applied for the present-day star and planet formation.

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