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Pathways towards forming super-massive black holes in the early Universe

Objective

Many questions remain unanswered regarding the origin and evolution of Black Holes (BHs). One such question concerns how BHs with masses of one billion times the mass of the sun could exist less than one billion years after the Big Bang? How could these objects grow so massive so quickly? Explaining their existence remains one of the grand challenges in astrophysics. The ‘direct collapse’ mechanism provides a compelling solution: if unusually massive stars can form early in the Universe producing large seed BHs (M >= 10000 Msun ) then the existence of massive BHs at early times can be explained.
During this fellowship, hosted at Dublin City University (DCU), I will develop, in collaboration with Prof. Downes, novel and innovative techniques (smart star particles (SSPs) - see part B) which will spearhead further development of the direct collapse scenario. My BH expertise will be matched with the expertise in star formation modelling of Prof. Turlough Downes resulting in a unique inter-disciplinary collaboration.
This research will allow the direct collapse mechanism to be fully tested, compared against current observational results and used to guide upcoming missions. The SSPs will contain algorithms designed to capture the essential physics of black hole seed formation. Their function will be to allow us to probe the nature of the central object - does a super-massive star form, or perhaps a quasi-star, or does fragmentation dominate resulting in the formation of stellar mass black holes? Answering these questions will allow us to prepare more thoroughly for upcoming missions. In this regard the research proposal is extremely timely, given recent observational progress, where a Lyman-alpha source has been discovered within a metal free region at very early time. The detailed results we will produce will be used to guide and interpret current and future observational campaigns including Chandra (XRay), JWST (infrared), SKA (radio) and Athena (Xray).

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2015

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Coordinator

DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 187 866,00
Address
Glasnevin
9 Dublin
Ireland

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Region
Ireland Eastern and Midland Dublin
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 187 866,00
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