Light or heavy supermassive black hole seeds: the role of internal   rotation in the fate of supermassive stars
  Supermassive black holes are a key ingredient of galaxy evolution. However, their origin is still highly debated. In one of the leading formation scenarios, a black hole of $\sim100$ M$_{\odot}$ results from the collapse of the inner core of a supermassive star ($\gtrsim 10^{4-5}$ M$_{\odot}$), created by the rapid accumulation ($\gtrsim 0.1 $ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$) of pristine gas at the centre of newly formed galaxies at $z\sim 15$. The subsequent evolution is still speculative: the remaining gas in the supermassive star can either directly plunge into the nascent black hole, or part of it can form a central accretion disc, whose luminosity sustains a surrounding, massive, and nearly hydrostatic envelope (a system called a "quasi-star"). To address this point, we consider the effect of rotation on a quasi-star, as angular momentum is inevitably transported towards the galactic nucleus by the accumulating gas. Using a model for the internal redistribution of angular momentum that qualitative matches results from simulations of rotating convective stellar envelopes, we show that quasi-stars with an envelope mass greater than a few $10^{5}$ M$_{\odot} \times (\rm black~hole~mass/100 M_{\odot})^{0.82}$ have highly sub-keplerian gas motion in their core, preventing gas circularisation outside the black hole's horizon. Less massive quasi-stars could form but last for only $\lesssim 10^4$ years before the accretion luminosity unbinds the envelope, suppressing the black hole growth. We speculate that this might eventually lead to a dual black hole seed population: (i) massive ($>10^{4}$ M$_{\odot}$) seeds formed in the most massive ($> 10^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$) and rare haloes; (ii) lighter ($\sim 10^{2}$ M$_{\odot}$) seeds to be found in less massive and therefore more common haloes. 
Davide Fiacconi (1), Elena M. Rossi (2) ((1) ICS, University of   Zurich, (2) Leiden Observatory, University of Leiden)
astro-ph.HE astro-ph.CO astro-ph.GA