title: Gravothermal collapse of self-interacting dark matter halos and the origin of massive black holes.
abstract: Black hole formation is an inevitable consequence of relativistic core collapse following the gravothermal catastrophe in self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) halos. Very massive SIDM halos form supermassive black holes (SMBHs) > or about 10(6)M(middle dot in circle) directly. Smaller halos believed to form by redshift z = 5 produce seed black holes of (10(2)-10(3))M(middle dot in circle) which can merge and/or accrete to reach the observational SMBH range. This scenario for SMBH formation requires no baryons, no prior star formation, and no other black hole seed mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Shmuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balberg
authors.forename: Stuart L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Shapiro