High-redshift SMBHs can grow from stellar-mass seeds via chaotic accretion

Extremely massive black holes, with masses M-BH > 10(9)M(circle dot), have been observed at ever higher redshifts. These results create ever tighter constraints on the formation and growth mechanisms of early black holes. Here we show that even the most extreme black hole known, P (o) over bar niu (a) over bar 'ena, can grow from a 10M(circle dot) seed black hole via Eddington-limited luminous accretion, provided that accretion proceeds almost continuously, but is composed of a large number of episodes with individually uncorrelated initial directions. This chaotic accretion scenario ensures that the growing black hole spins slowly, with the dimensionless spin parameter a less than or similar to 0.2, so its radiative efficiency is also low, is an element of similar or equal to 0.06. If accretion is even partially aligned, with 20-40 per cent of accretion events happening in the same direction, the black hole spin and radiative efficiency are much higher, leading to significantly slower growth. We suggest that the chaotic accretion scenario can be completely falsified only if a 10(9)M(circle dot) black hole is discovered at z >= 9.1, approximately 150 Myr before P (o) over bar niu (a) over bar 'ena. The space density of extreme quasars suggests that only a very small fraction, roughly one in 4 x 10(7), of seed black holes need to encounter favourable growth conditions to produce the observed extreme quasars. Other seed black holes grow much less efficiently, mainly due to lower duty cycles, so are much more difficult to detect.

Automated summary

The study creates tighter constraints on the formation and growth mechanisms of early black holes. It shows that chaotic accretion leads to slower growth with lower radiative efficiency, while aligned accretion results in higher spin and radiative efficiency thus slowing down growth. The density of extreme quasars suggests that only a small fraction of seed black holes need favorable conditions to produce observed extreme quasars.