The formation of supermassive black holes from Population III.1 seeds. I. Cosmic formation histories and clustering properties

We calculate cosmic distributions in space and time of the formation sites of the first, `Pop III.1' stars, exploring a model in which these are the progenitors of all supermassive black holes (SMBHs), seen in the centres of most large galaxies. Pop III.1 stars are defined to form from primordial composition gas in dark matter minihaloes with {˜ }10^6 M_⊙ that are isolated from neighbouring astrophysical sources by a given isolation distance, diso. We assume Pop III.1 sources are seeds of SMBHs, based on protostellar support by dark matter annihilation heating that allows them to accrete a large fraction of their minihalo gas, i.e. {˜ }10^5 M_⊙. Exploring diso from 10 to 100 {kpc} (proper distances), we predict the redshift evolution of Pop III.1 source and SMBH remnant number densities. The local, z = 0 density of SMBHs constrains d_{iso}≲ 100 {kpc} (i.e. 3 {Mpc} comoving distance at z ≃ 30). In our simulated ({˜ }60 {Mpc})^3 comoving volume, Pop III.1 stars start forming just after z = 40. Their formation is largely complete by z ≃ 25-20 for diso = 100-50 {kpc}. We follow source evolution to z = 10, by which point most SMBHs reside in haloes with {≳ }10^8 M_⊙. Over this period, there is relatively limited merging of SMBHs for these values of diso. We also predict SMBH clustering properties at z = 10: feedback suppression of neighbouring sources leads to relatively flat angular correlation functions.