Talk:Direct collapse black hole

There are multiple different theories on how a massive black hole seed could form, the current rendition of the article seems to say that direct collapse from a gaseous cloud to a high mass black hole is the only formation route as that is the only formation route listed. I feel it is worthwhile to consider other routes like in ^[1] where a a gaseous cloud collapses to form a supermassive star and that in turn collapses to a massive seed black hole, or in that same article, the possibility that a dense star cluster hosts a significant amount of stellar mergers and creates a supermassive star from which an intermediate mass black hole is formed. I plan on adding to the formation section and considering the listed routes as possibilities to give a more comprehensive take on how a massive seed could form.--Eulieus (talk) 08:10, 10 February 2026 (UTC)

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According to

• Inayoshi, K., Visbal, E., & Haiman, Z. (2020). The assembly of the first massive black holes. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 58(1), 27-97.

Direct collapse black holes first form a massive star, then collapse. These are often referred to as “direct collapse black hole” (DCBH) models, although arguably this is a misnomer, given the inevitable intermediate stage of a supermassive star. In this review, we therefore do not employ the otherwise very popular “DCBH” terminology. The source

• Mayer, L., & Bonoli, S. (2018). The route to massive black hole formation via merger-driven direct collapse: a review. Reports on Progress in Physics, 82(1), 016901.

says Finally, we consider the intriguing possibility that the secondary gas inflows in the unstable disks might drive gas to collapse into a supermassive black hole directly via the General Relativistic radial instability. Such dark collapse route could generate gravitational wave emission detectable via the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Johnjbarton (talk) 02:41, 10 January 2026 (UTC)

The sources cited in the intro here are unclear.

• Bromm, V., & Loeb, A. (2003). Formation of the first supermassive black holes. The Astrophysical Journal, 596(1), 34.After shedding a small fraction of its mass, the SMS will collapse to an SMBH
• Loeb, A., & Rasio, F. A. (1994). Collapse of primordial gas clouds and the formation of quasar black holes. arXiv preprint astro-ph/9401026. A seed black hole could form directly through the initial collapse of gas with very low specic angular momentum. In some cases, a quasi-spherical supermassive star may form as an intermediate state. More commonly, rotational support will precede pressure support and lead to the formation of a supermassive disk as an intermediate state.

Johnjbarton (talk) 03:00, 10 January 2026 (UTC)