The Emergence of the First Star-free Atomic Cooling Haloes in the Universe

Understand

Using the Renaissance suite of simulations we examine the emergence of pristine atomic cooling haloes that are both metal-free and star-free in the early Universe.

• The absence of metals prevents catastrophic cooling, suppresses fragmentation, and may allow for the formation of massive black hole seeds.
• Here we report on the abundance of pristine atomic cooling haloes found and on the specific physical conditions that allow for the formation of these direct-collapse-black-hole (DCBH) haloes.
• In total in our simulations we find that 79 DCBH haloes form before a redshift of 11.6.