Direct Collapse to Precursors of Supermassive Black Hole Seeds: Radiation-feedback-generated Outflows

Abstract

We use high-resolution zoom-in cosmological simulations to model outflow triggered by radiation and thermal drivers around the central mass accumulation during direct collapse within the dark matter (DM) halo. The maximal resolution is 1.3 × 10 ^−5 pc, and no restrictions are put on the geometry of the inflow/outflow. The central mass is considered prior to the formation of the supermassive black hole seed at a redshift of z ∼ 15.9 and can constitute either a supermassive star (SMS) of ∼10 ^5 M _⊙ surrounded by a growing accretion disk or a self-gravitating disk. The radiation transfer is modeled using the ray-tracing algorithm. Due to the high accretion rate of ∼1 M _⊙ yr ^−1 determined by the DM halo, accretion is mildly supercritical, resulting in mildly supercritical luminosity that has only a limited effect on the accretion rate, with a duty cycle of ∼0.9. We observe a fast development of hot cavities, which quickly extend into polar funnels and expand dense shells. Within the funnels, fast winds, ∼10 ^3 km s ^−1 , are mass-loaded by the accreting gas. We follow the expanding shells to ∼1 pc, when the shell velocity remains substantially (∼5 times) above the escape speed. The ionization cones formed by the central UV/X-ray completely ionize the cavities. Extrapolating the outflow properties shows that the halo material outside the shell will have difficulty stopping it. We therefore conclude that the expanding wind-driven shell will break out of the central parsec and will reach the halo virial radius. Finally, the anisotropic accretion flow on subparsec scales will attenuate the UV/soft X-rays on the H _2 . Hence, the formation of funnels and powerful outflows around, e.g., SMSs can have interesting observational corollaries.

Keywords

• Galaxies
• Active galactic nuclei
• Quasars
• Supermassive black holes
• Plasma astrophysics
• Early universe