In recent years, the discovery of ~1 billion solar mass quasars at redshifts of 6–7 has lent ever greater relevancy to the understanding of supermassive stellar evolution. Mounting observational and theoretical evidence points to supermassive stars as the most viable progenitor model for such early, massive accreting black holes. An observational candidate for an immediate descendant of the direct collapse of a supermassive star has now been found in the object CR7. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope next year promises to finally unveil many more such sources, and perhaps even supermassive stars themselves — but we must know precisely what to look for! The potential for exotic nucleosynthesis during the collapse of supermassive stars, and in particular the ejection of this matter into the interstellar and intergalactic medium, remains poorly understood.
This workshop will assemble leading experts from stellar evolution, star formation, accretion physics, and cosmology, in order to shed new light on the origin, evolution, and collapse of supermassive stars, as well as their life after death as the progenitors of the first massive quasars. The primary objective will be to review, discuss, and bring together the latest developments in the study of primordial supermassive stars and their cosmological context. New insight is needed into the coupling of the evolution of these stars to the surrounding gas, the onset of their collapse to a black hole, the role of previously neglected physical processes for their evolution, such as rotation and magnetic fields, and more.
Based on discussions that took place during the workshop, a review article on the origin of the first supermassive black holes has been written and accepted for publication in PASA:
Woods, T. E., Agarwal, B., Bromm, V., Bunker, A., Chen, K.-J., Chon, S., Ferrara, A., Glover, S. C. O., Haemmerlé, L., Haiman, Z., Hartwig, T., Heger, A., Hirano, S., Hosokawa, T., Inayoshi, K., Klessen, R. S., Kobayashi, C., Koliopanos, F., Latif, M. A., Li, Y., Mayer, L., Mezcua, M., Natarajan, P., Pacucci, F., Rees, M. J., Regan, J. A., Sakurai, Y., Salvadori, S., Schneider, R., Surace, M., Tanaka, T. L., Whalen, D. J., Yoshida, N. (2019). Titans of the early Universe: The Prato statement on the origin of the first supermassive black holes. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 36, E027.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the workshop and review paper!
* = co-chair
UT Austin
U Geneva
Columbia U
Monash U
U Heidelberg
Penn State U
Yale U
U Florence
Rome Observatory
IAP
U Portsmouth
Monash U
U Tokyo
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
The workshop will be held from 20–24 November 2017. The final program is as follows:
09:00 |
Introduction by the co-chairs |
09:30 |
Kohei Inayoshi: Theory of SMS/DCBH formation |
10:00 |
Muhammad Latif: Numerical simulations of SMS formation |
10:30 |
Coffee |
11:00 |
John Regan: SMBH formation in atomically-cooled halos |
11:30 |
Simon Glover: Microphysics of SMBH formation |
12:00 |
Lunch |
14:00 |
Fabio Pacucci: Feedback limits |
14:30 |
Shingo Hirano: Supersonic gas streams enhance the formation of massive black holes in the early Universe |
14:50 |
Unconference/Breakout session(s) |
16:00 |
Coffee |
16:30 |
Whiteboard discussion |
17:30 |
Break |
09:00 |
Takashi Hosokawa: The evolution of supermassive stars |
09:30 |
Tyrone Woods: The death of supermassive stars |
10:00 |
Lionel Haemmerlé: Rotating models and the angular momentum problem |
10:30 |
Coffee |
11:00 |
Yuya Sakurai: UV feedback in the formation of SMSs |
11:30 |
Rafaella Schneider: The rise of the first SMBHs from BH seeds: light or heavy? |
12:00 |
Lunch |
14:00 |
Ken Chen: Unusual death of supermassive Pop III stars |
14:20 |
Unconference/Breakout session(s) |
15:30 |
Coffee |
16:00 |
Whiteboard discussion |
17:00 |
Break |
09:00 |
Bhaskar Agarwal: Uncertainties in the rate of SMS formation |
09:30 |
Yuexing Li: Long-term accretion/evolution of central SMBHs |
10:00 |
Sunmyon Chon: Radiation hydrodynamics simulations of the SMS formation |
10:20 |
Coffee |
10:50 |
Unconference/Breakout session(s) |
12:00 |
Whiteboard discussion |
13:00 |
Lunch |
| FREE AFTERNOON | |
09:00 |
Tilman Hartwig: What is CR7? |
09:30 |
Mar Mezcua: Observational constraints from IMBHs |
10:00 |
Filippos Koliopanos: In search of intermediate mass black holes in low luminosity AGN |
10:20 |
Andrew Bunker: Upcoming insights from JWST |
10:50 |
Coffee |
11:20 |
Stefania Salvadori: Local constraints on the high-z Universe |
11:50 |
Chiaki Kobayashi: Constraints from chemical evolution |
12:20 |
Lunch |
14:00 |
Lucio Mayer: Disk accretion onto central SMBHs |
14:30 |
Yuexing Li: Observing the first black holes with next-generation observatories |
14:50 |
Unconference/Breakout session(s) |
16:00 |
Coffee |
16:30 |
Whiteboard discussion |
17:30 |
Break |
09:00 |
Conference summary by the co-chairs |
09:30 |
Breakout sessions: Workshop on white paper sections |
10:30 |
Coffee |
11:00 |
Sectional summaries (by day/topic) & dissenting opinions |
12:00 |
Lunch |
14:00 |
Break |
U Heidelberg
U Oxford
NAOJ Tokyo
U Tokyo
U Heidelberg
U Geneva
U Tokyo
Monash U
UT Austin
Kyoto U
Columbia U
U Heidelberg
U Hertfordshire
IRAP Toulouse
CIIT Islamabad
Penn State U
U Zurich
IEEC-CSIC Barcelona
Yale U
Dublin City U
U Tokyo
U Florence
Rome Observatory
U Portsmouth
Monash U
The workshop will be held at the Monash University Prato Centre in Prato, Italy.
Monash University Prato Centre
Palazzo Vai
Via Pugliesi, 26
59100 Prato (PO)
ITALY
Tel: +39 0574 43691
Email: info@monash.it
By attending this workshop, participants agree to follow the JINA-CEE Code of Conduct. Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is encouraged to speak to Raffaella Schneider or Tyrone Woods, as they have agreed to serve as a point of contact (or if desired, to another member of the organizing team).
Background illustration by NASA/Dana Berry/SkyWorks Digital. Website and poster design by Cheryl Woynarski (Woya Design).