On the Evolution of Supermassive Primordial Stars in Cosmological Flows

Understand

Primordial supermassive stars (SMSs) formed in atomic-cooling halos at z ~ 15 - 20 are leading candidates for the seeds of the first quasars.

• Past numerical studies of the evolution of SMSs have typically assumed constant accretion rates rather than the highly variable flows in which they form.
• We model the evolution of SMSs in the cosmological flows that create them using the Kepler stellar evolution and implicit hydrodynamics code.
• We find that they reach masses of 1 - 2 x $10^5 M_{\odot}$ before undergoing direct-collapse to black holes (DCBHs) during or at the end of their main-sequence hydrogen burning, at 1 - 1.5 Myr, regardless of halo mass, spin, or merger history.