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Boosting Supermassive Black Hole Growth in the Early Universe by Fuzzy Dark Matter Solitons

H.-H. Sandy Chiu, Hsi-Yu Schive, Hsiang-Yi Karen Yang, Hsin-Hao Huang, M. Gaspari

Physical Review Letters, 2025

10 citations

Abstract

Observations of massive supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early Universe challenge existing black hole formation models. We propose that soliton cores in fuzzy dark matter (FDM) offer a potential solution to this timing problem. Our FDM cosmological zoom-in simulations confirm that, for a particle mass m_{FDM}∼10^{-22} eV, solitons are well developed at redshift z∼7 with masses of ∼10^{9}M_{⊙}, comparable to the observed SMBHs. We then demonstrate using hydrodynamic simulations that, compared to cold dark matter, these high-z massive FDM solitons with mass M_{s} can provide additional gravitational potential to accrete gas and boost the Bondi accretion rate of a growing black hole seed with mass M_{BH} by up to 2-4 orders of magnitude, in the regime of efficient cooling and negligible radiation pressure. This accretion boosting mechanism is effective for 10^{-22}≲m_{FDM}≲10^{-20} eV and potentially beyond as long as M_{s}>M_{BH}.

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