Investigating the Role of Dark Matter in the Formation of Supermassive Black Holes in Early Universe Galaxies

Abstract

One of the greatest mysteries in cosmology is the formation of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early universe. The recent discoveries, especially through the James Webb Space Telescope, have identified SMBHs with a high mass at redshifts as large as z ≈ 10 that are difficult to explain by conventional models, which only involve baryonic accretion. This is a review of the place of dark matter, in particular, cold dark matter (CDM) and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) in the formation and rapid evolution of SMBHs. We explore the role that dark matter halos might have played in the collapse of gas clouds and black hole seed formation, which might have offered the conditions needed to form SMBHs at high redshifts. The review summarizes existing models and observational data and theoretical issues, pointing out the possible physical processes by which the dark matter might have accelerated SMBH growth during the early universe. In addition, we address the direction of future research and the observational techniques which are required in order to observe the imprint of dark matter during the early evolution of SMBHs.