STELLAR-MASS BLACK HOLES IN YOUNG GALAXIES

We explore the potential cumulative energy production of stellar-mass black holes in early galaxies. Stellar-mass black holes may accrete substantially from the higher density interstellar media (ISMs) of primordial galaxies, and their energy release would be distributed more uniformly over the galaxies, perhaps providing a different mode of energy feedback into young galaxies than central supermassive black holes. We construct a model for the production and growth of stellar-mass black holes over the first few gigayears of a young galaxy. With the simplifying assumption of a constant density of the ISM, n similar to 10(4)-10(5) cm(-3), we estimate the number of accreting stellar-mass black holes to be similar to 10(6) and the potential energy production to be as high as 10(61) erg over several billion years. For densities less than 10(5) cm(-3), stellar-mass black holes are unlikely to reach their Eddington limit luminosities. The framework we present could be incorporated in numerical simulations to compute the feedback from stellar-mass black holes with inhomogeneous, evolving ISMs.