Radiative feedback on supermassive star formation: the massive end of the population III initial mass function

Supermassive stars (SMSs) with masses of M∗≃104--105 M⊙ are invoked as possible seeds of high-redshift supermassive black holes, but it remains under debate whether their protostar indeed acquires sufficient mass via gas accretion overcoming radiative feedback. We investigate protostellar growth in dynamically heated atomic-cooling haloes (ACHs) found in recent cosmological simulations, performing three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical (RHD) simulations that consider stellar evolution under variable mass accretion. We find that one of the ACHs feeds the central protostar at rates exceeding a critical value, above which the star evolves in a cool bloating phase and hardly produces ionizing photons. Consequently, the stellar mass reaches M∗≳104 M⊙ unimpeded by radiative feedback. In the other ACH, where the mass supply rate is lower, the star spends most of its life as a hot main-sequence star, emitting intense ionizing radiation. Then, the stellar mass growth is terminated around 500 M⊙ by photoevaporation of the circumstellar disk. A series of our RHD simulations provide a formula of the final stellar mass determined either by stellar feedback or their lifetime as a function of the mass supply rate from the parent cloud in the absence of stellar radiation. Combining the results with the statistical properties of SMS-forming clouds in high-redshift quasar progenitor haloes, we construct a top-heavy mass distribution of primordial stars over M∗≃100--105 M⊙, approximately following a power-law spectrum of ∝M−1.3∗ with a steeper decline at M∗≳2×104 M⊙. Their massive BH remnants would be further fed via the dense debris disk, powering "milli-quasars" with a bolometric luminosity of Lbol ≳ 1043 erg s−1.