The first black holes were

The first black holes in the universe have a huge impact on their surroundings despite the fact that they are small and grow very slowly, according to new supercomputer models.

These simulations were performed by astrophysicist Marcelo Alvarez and Tom Abel of Kavli Astrophysics and Astrophysics Academy, at the Department of Energy and Stanford National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC , and John Wise, former KIPAC member currently at NASA Goddard Space Center.

Common theories are that the first black holes swallowed clouds of gas and dust in the early universe, developing into supermassive black holes at the center of today's galaxies. However, new results, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, show a much more complex role for the first black holes.

Abel said: 'I am very excited to be able to perform calculations to show the most appropriate physical phenomenon, and we can prove this idea is right or wrong. In the next decade, with the use of such calculations, we can solve some of the most important issues related to black holes in the universe. '

To carry out their research, the researchers created the most detailed simulation of the first black holes in the universe formed from the collapse of stars. These simulations begin with data from cosmic radiation observations - the earliest observations of the structure of the universe. The researchers then applied basic laws that control the interaction of matter, allowing the universe to simulate evolution and development as in practice.

This computer-simulated image shows that gas (blue) interacts with one of the first black holes (white) in the early universe, about 200 million years after the Big Bang. (Photo: Marcelo Alvarez, John H. Wise and Tom Abel.)

In the scientists' simulation, the gas clouds remaining after the Big Bang gradually gathered under gravity, and eventually formed the first stars. Giant and hot stars burn bright for a short time, emitting tremendous amounts of energy in the form of starlight and pushing gas clouds away. However. These stars cannot exist in such a 'fierce' way, and they quickly run out of fuel. This caused one of the newly formed stars to collapse under their own weight, creating a black hole . With very little material around, this black hole is 'starved' and cannot expand.

"Standardization (a powerful source of radiation), which is a billion times larger than our sun and receiving energy from a black hole, has been observed since the beginning of the universe, and we must explain how," Alvarez said. how these 'giant monsters' can grow so fast. Their origin remains one of the fundamental unanswered questions in celestial physics'.

An explanation for the existence of supermassive black holes in the early days of the universe suggested that the first black holes were 'seeds' and developed into much larger black holes through gravity and 'swallowed'. 'material. But in his simulation. Alvarez, Abel and Wise found that such development is very unlikely, with the black hole in the simulation developing only less than 1% of the original mass in a process of 1 hundred million years.

Although these simulations do not completely deny the theory, it shows very little possibility that the first black holes could directly develop into supermassive black holes that existed about 1 billion years later.

Theory of replacement

Although the early stars of the universe pushed clouds of gas away and significantly slowed down the development of black holes, gas bands sometimes came to the location of the black hole. When this amount of material is sucked into the black hole, its speed increases and releases enough X-radiation to heat the gas hundreds of light years away to several thousand degrees. The extra heat from X-rays causes the gas to move further away from the black hole.

The amount of heat from X-rays is also enough to prevent nearby gas from forming stars in 10 or even 100 million years. Therefore, scientists hypothesize that larger than normal gas clouds may have had the opportunity to form without creating new stars. Such large clumps of gas may have collapsed under their own weight and formed supermassive black holes.

"While X-rays from matter in the first black holes limit the development of black holes, the amount of radiation produced may have paved the way for the direct formation of supermassive black holes," Alvarez said . However, there is still a lot of work to be done to check whether this idea really happened. '

Wise added: 'This study will make many people rethink how radiation from black holes affects the surrounding environment. Black holes are not only places of silent material gathering. they really affect other parts of the galaxy '.

Kavli Astrophysics and Astrophysics, sponsored by Fred Kavli and the Kavli Foundation, is a joint research unit of Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

SLAC is a multi-program laboratory that explores important questions in astrophysics, photon science, molecular physics, and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, California, SLAC is operated by Stanford for the Department of Science, Department of Energy.