Journal of Modern Physics, 2013, 4, 50-54
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jmp.2013.47A1006 Published Online July 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jmp)
Supermassive Black Holes, Large Scale Structure
and Holography
T. R. Mongan
84 Marin Avenue, Sausalito, USA
Email: tmongan@gmail.com
Received March 21, 2013; revised April 29, 2013; accepted June 7, 2013
Copyright © 2013 T. R. Mongan. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
A holographic analysis of large scale structure in the universe provides an upper bound on the mass of supermassive
black holes at the center of large scale structures with matter density varying as 2
1
r as a function of distance r from
their center. The upper bound is consistent with two important test cases involving observations of the supermassive
black hole with mass 3.6 × 106 times the galactic mass in Sagittarius A* near the center of our Milky Way and the 2 ×
109 solar mass black hole in the quasar ULAS J112001.48 + 064124.3 at redshift z = 7.085. It is also consistent with
upper bounds on central black hole masses in globular clusters M15, M19 and M22 developed using the Jansky Very
Large Array in New Mexico.
Keywords: Supermassive Black Holes; Large Scale Structure; Holographic Principle
1. Introduction
How supermassive black holes “... form and evolve in-
side galaxies is one of the most fascinating mysteries in
modern astrophysics” [1]. This analysis addresses that
issue with a holographic model [2] for large scale struc-
ture in the universe, based on the holographic principle
[3] resulting from the theory of gravitation expressed by
general relativity. The internal dynamics of large scale
structures is analyzed using classical Newtonian gravity
to describe the motion of sub-elements within the struc-
tures and general relativity to describe the supermassive
black holes at their centers. Consistency of the results
with test cases across the range of large scale structures
and redshifts makes it difficult to ascribe those results to
numerical coincidences.
2. Internal Dynamics of Large Scale
Structures
The holographic model for large scale structure [2] iden-
tifies three levels of self-similar large scale structures
(corresponding to superclusters, galaxies and star clusters)
between stellar systems and the totality of today’s ob-
servable universe. The extended holographic principle
employed in that model indicates all information de-
scribing physics of a gravitationally-bound astronomical
system of total mass
s
M
is encoded on a spherical
holographic screen enclosing the system. In our vac-
uum-dominated universe, the radius of the holographic
screen encoding all information describing a structure of
cm
0.16
s
s
M
R
mass
s
M
is , if the Hubble constant
071 kmsecMpcH
. In the holographic model, the
number of sub-elements of mass in a large scale m
structure is
K
, where
m
K
is constant, so the amount of
information in any mass bin (proportional to
K
m
m) is
the same in all mass bins. This is consistent with the 1
m
behavior of the mass spectrum in the Press-Schechter
formalism [4], and implies lowest mass sub-elements are
the most numerous.
The main idea of this analysis is that matter inside a
core radius much smaller than the holographic radius of a
large scale structure is accumulated in a central black
hole, where the core radius is the radius at which lowest
mass sub-elements can exist without being disrupted and
drawn into the central black hole.
The analysis assumes visible large scale structures
develop within isothermal spherical halos of dark matter.
C
opyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP
T. R. MONGAN 51
So, the matter density distribution in large scale structures
is

2
a
rr
r
a
, where is the distance from the center
of the structure and is constant. The mass
s
M
within
the holographic radius
s
R is
2
4d
s
R
2
04
s
s
a
rr
r
 
aR, requiring 4
s
s
M
aR
R
. Then,
the mass within radius from the center of a large
scale structure is 2
4d
2
0
R
R
s
s
aR
rr M
R
v
R
r

and the
tangential speed t of a sub-element of mass m moving
in a circle of radius around the center is found from
2
t
mv
Gam
RR

2
4GMm
R, where G = 6.67 × 108
cm3·g1·sec2. So, the tangential speed of sub-elements in
circular orbits around the center,
s
t
s
M
vG
R
, does not
depend on distance from the center and sub-elements lie
on a flat tangential speed curve.
With an 2
a
r
R
matter density distribution, sub-elements
orbiting the center of a large scale structure at radius
are equivalent to sub-elements orbiting a point mass with
mass
s
s
R
M
R. In large scale structures with 2
ar
R
R
den-
sity distributions, the mass within a core radius c is
drawn into a central black hole with an innermost stable
circular orbit (ISCO) radius [5] much less than the holo-
graphic radius of the lowest mass sub-element. The core
radius c is the holographic radius of the lowest mass
sub-element of the large scale structure because no sub-
element can exist as an isolated system closer to the cen-
tral black hole than the holographic radius of the lowest
mass sub-element without being disrupted and drawn
into the central black hole. In consequence, the upper
bound on the mass concentrated in the central black hole
of the large scale structure is the mass of the 2
ar
R
c
R
density distribution within c. The upper bound is rea-
ched when the central black hole has accumulated all of
the matter within the central volume inside . With
density distribution

2
1
4
s
s
M
Rr



c
R
r
, the mass of the
structure within radius from the center of the large
scale structure is c
s
s
R
M
R
R
. So, when the mass within the
core radius c is concentrated in the central black hole
of the large scale structure, the upper bound on the mass
of the central black hole is c
s
s
R
M
R. The corresponding
upper bound on the fraction of the mass of large scale
structures concentrated in the central black hole is
min
c
s
s
RM
RM
min
M, where is the mass of the lowest
mass sub-elements of the large scale structures.
Note that the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO)
radius,
I
SCO , of a black hole of mass r
M
and spin an-
gular momentum J depends on its gravitational radius
2
G
GM
rc
10 1
3.0010cmsecc
 
6
, where , and its spin
J. The ISCO radius is
I
SCOG for a non-rotating
black hole,
rr
I
SCO G
rr
for maximal prograde rotation of
the black hole and 9
I
SCO G
rr
for maximal retrograde
rotation of the black hole [5]. So, the necessary condition
for this analysis, 1
ISCO
c
r
R
, is

2
90.16 1
s
GR
c



25
4.08 10cm
. For
the largest of all structures, with Jeans’ mass 2.61 × 1050
g and holographic radius ,

2
90.16 0.0044.
s
GR
c


 Thus, central black holes are
point particles compared to the holographic radius of the
smallest sub-elements in any of the self-similar large
scale structures.
3. Central Black Holes at z = 0
This upper bound on the mass of central black holes in
large scale structures is consistent with two important
test cases. The first is the supermassive black hole in
Sagittarius
A
near the center of our Milky Way. The
mass of the Milky Way is estimated as 2.52 × 1045 g [6].
If the Hubble constant H0 = 71 km/sec Mpc, the holo-
graphic model of self-similar large scale structure [2]
estimates the mass of lowest mass star cluster sub-ele-
ments of galaxies as 1.0 × 1035 g. Then, the upper bound
on the mass of the central black hole in the Milky Way is
1.6 × 1040 g, about twice the observed 9 × 1039 g mass [7]
of the supermassive black hole in Sagittarius
A
. The
upper bound on the central black hole mass for galaxies
with the average galactic mass [2] 1.6 × 1044 g is 4.0 ×
1039 g, or 6
210
M
33
210 gM
0z
, where is the
solar mass.
In the holographic model for large scale structure, the
constant relating the mass of isolated structures to their
holographic radius, as well as the mass of lowest mass
substructures within large scale structures, depends on
the Hubble constant H0. If the Hubble constant H0 = 65
km/sec Mpc, the upper bound on the mass of the central
black hole in the Milky Way is 9.2 × 1039 g, close to the
estimate from Keck telescope observations [7].
Self-similarity of large scale structures in the holo-
graphic model indicates there should be black holes in
the centers of superclusters and star clusters, just as there
are in galaxies. The largest black hole at
should
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP
T. R. MONGAN
52
be in the center of the largest supercluster, corresponding
to a supercluster with the Jeans’ mass 2.6 × 1050 g. Using
the estimate of 1.4 × 1040 g for the lowest mass galaxies
from the holographic model [2], the upper bound for the
mass of the largest supermassive black hole in the uni-
verse at is 1.9 × 1045 g. This is about fifty times
the 4.2 × 1043 g mass of one of the largest black holes
found to date, that in NGC 4889 in the Coma con-
stellation [8].
0z

6
210M
32
1.6 10g
At the lower end of the range of large scale structures,
the holographic model estimates an average star cluster
mass of 1.2 × 1039 g at z = 0. Using a z = 0
minimum stellar mass of 0.08 , 4.4 ×
1035 g is the upper bound on the central
black hole in such a star cluster. The holographic upper
bound on central black hole mass in star clusters is con-
sistent with upper bounds on central black hole masses in
globular clusters M15, M19 and M22 developed using
the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) in New Mexico [9].
The mass of M15 is
M
5
5.6 10
220 M
M
[10], the mass of M19
is 6
101.1
M
5
0
[11], and the mass of M22 is
2.9 1
M
[10]. The holographic upper bound for the
mass of the central black hole in M15 of 212
M
980
, con-
sistent with the JVLA upper bound of
M
. Cor-
respondingly, the upper bound on the central black hole
mass of 297
M
for M19 is consistent with the JVLA
upper bound of 730
M
, and the upper bound on the
central black hole mass of 150
M
for M22 is consis-
tent with the JVLA upper bound of 360
M
.
4. Supermassive Black Holes at z > 0
In the holographic model [2], the range of the mass
spectrum at any structural level decreases with redshift,
because the mass at the lower end of the mass spectrum
at any structural level increases with redshift. Also, the
number of structural levels increases with redshift. Ac-
cordingly, for a given structure mass, the upper bound on
central black hole mass increases with redshift. The
holographic upper bound on central black hole mass for a
structure with mass equal to that of the Milky Way is 6.1
× 1041 g at z = 0.5 and 8.1 × 1042 g at z = 1, compared to
the upper bound of 1.6 × 1040 g at z = 0. The estimated
mass of an average galaxy at z = 0 in the holographic
model is 1.6 × 1044 g. The upper bound on the central
black hole mass
M
for a structure with mass 1.6 × 1044
g is 1.5 × 1041 g at z = 0.5 and 2.1 × 1042 g at z = 1,
compared to 4.0 × 1039 g at z = 0. This is consistent
with indications that the average ratio
galaxy
M
M
increases
with redshift [12].
Volonteri [1] says the “golden era” of 1 billion
M
supermassive black holes “occurred early on.” So, the
analysis below estimates upper bounds on black hole
masses in the early universe at z > 6, less than a billion
years after the end of inflation [13] and before develop-
ment of self-similar large scale structures present in
today’s universe began at z < 6 [2].
If the Hubble constant H0 = 71 km/sec Mpc, the criti-
2
30 3
0
crit
39.510g cm
8
H
G

cal density . Assuming
the universe is dominated by vacuum energy resulting
from a cosmological constant , matter accounts for
about 26% of the energy in today’s universe [14]. So, the
matter density
m at redshift z is ρm(z) = (1 + z)3
ρm(0), where today’s matter density is ρm(0) = 0.26 ρcrit =
2.5 × 1030 g/cm3. Correspondingly, the cosmic micro-
wave background radiation density at redshift z is ρr(z) =
(1 + z)4 ρr(0), where the mass equivalent of today’s
radiation energy density is ρr(0) = 4.4 × 1034 g/cm3 [15].
When matter dominates, the speed of pressure waves
affecting matter density at redshift z is
z
 

41 0
90
r
s
m
z
cz c

[16], and the Jeans’ length
3
10
s
m
Lzc z
Gz

[16,17]. The first level
of large scale structure within the universe is determined

by the Jeans’ mass

3
4
34 m
Lz
M
zz



 

, where
 

22
101
2
3
r
mm
zzB
c
Lz zG z

 

, and

32
0
22.8910g cm
3
r
c
BG

 
. So the Jeans’ mass
3
2
48 0
m
B
Mz
z
6,z
is independent of [16].
Consider the era at before self-similar large
scale structure developed [2], when each Jeans’ mass was
populated by early stars, with masses in the range 2 ×
1034 g to 2 × 1035 g (10
M
to 100
M
) [18]. Taking
this range as bounds on the lowest mass of early stellar
systems, the holographic radii of the lowest mass early
stellar systems, and thus the central core radii c of the
matter distribution within the Jeans’ masses, was between
3.6 × 1017 cm and 1.1 × 1018 cm. Then, the analysis
above indicates each Jeans’ mass should harbor a central
supermassive black hole with upper bounds on its mass
in the range 2.3 × 1042 g to 7.2 × 1042 g. This estimate is
consistent with observation [19] of the 4 × 1042 g black
hole in the quasar ULAS J112001.48 + 064124.3 at
redshift
R
7.085z
. If the lowest mass of early stars was
30
M
, the upper bound of 4 × 1042 g on the mass of
black holes in the center of each Jeans’ mass equals the
mass observed in ULAS J112001.48 + 064124.3. Later,
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP
T. R. MONGAN 53
at , as self-similar large scale structure develop-
ed, supermassive black holes formed within lower struc-
tural levels, and almost all systems composed of stars or
star aggregations developed central supermassive black
holes.
6z
5. Central Black Hole Develop ment
Development of visible large scale structures within
isothermal spherical halos of dark matter with 2
ar
R
R
density distributions resulted in the commonly observed
flat tangential speed distribution of sub-elements. In the
holographic model of large scale structure, black holes
near the center of nascent large scale structures are pro-
genitors of supermassive black holes. Any sub-element
passing within a distance from the central black hole that
is less than the holographic radius of the sub-element is
disrupted and drawn into the central black hole. So, the
mass within a core radius c is drawn into in the cen-
tral black hole. The core radius c is the holographic
radius of the lowest mass sub-element of the large scale
structure because no sub-element can exist as an isolated
system closer to the central black hole than the holo-
graphic radius of the lowest mass sub-element without
being disrupted and drawn into the central black hole. In
consequence, the upper bound on the mass of the central
black hole within in the
c
R

2
1
4
s
s
M
Rr



r
density
distribution of the large scale structure is c
s
s
R
M
R
R
. Again,
the upper bound is reached when the central black hole
has accumulated all of the matter within the central
volume inside .
c
Stars with masses >100
M
developed at .
They had very short lives and many of them collapsed to
black holes [20]. It has been claimed that black holes
resulting from collapse of stars in the 100
10z
M
range
might not suffice as seeds for supermassive black holes,
so supermassive stars in the 5
10
M
range should be
considered as seeds for supermassive black holes [21].
That scenario is consistent with the holographic model
for large scale structure [2]. When photon decoupling
took place, at , “hydrogen gas was free to col-
lapse under its own self-gravity (and the added gravita-
tional attraction of the dark matter)” [22]. The extended
holographic principle used in the holographic model of
large scale structure [2] indicates the information de-
scribing a structure of mass
1100z
s
M
is encoded on a holo-
graphic screen with radius cm
0.16
s
M
s
R, if the Hub-
ble constant 0. Consider the escape
velocity of protons on the holographic screen for a mass
71HkmsecMpc
s
M
with radius
s
R at , and set it equal to the
average velocity of protons in equilibrium with CMB
radiation outside the screen. Then the holographic model
for large scale structure [2] identifies 10
1100z
5
M
as the
mass of systems in thermal equilibrium with the CMB,
since there is no heat transfer between a system with
mass s
5
10
M
M1100z
and the CMB at . At z =
1100, protons outside the holographic screen with radius
cm
0.16
s
s
M
R
5
10
that are in equilibrium with the CMB
cannot transfer heat (and energy) across the holographic
screen surrounding a system with mass s
M
M
1100z
at
. The free fall time [23] for systems with mass
s
5
10
M
M1100z
with the matter density at
is
about 2.6 million years, so there is sufficient time for
those systems to ignite as supermassive stars and subse-
quently collapse to seed black holes with masses near
5
10
M
[24] leading to formation of supermassive black
holes in the 800 million years before emissions as-
sociated with the 4 × 1042 g black hole in the quasar
ULAS J112001.48 + 064124.3 observed at redshift
7.085z
[19]. Anyway, the first stars apparently pro-
duced seed black holes for subsequent development of
large scale structures.
In the earliest phase of development of large scale
structure, at 6z
, there was only one Jeans’ mass struc-
ture level in the holographic model for large scale struc-
ture [2]. These earliest large scale structures, home of the
earliest quasars, then developed around a seed black hole
near their center. Sub-elements of the earliest large scale
structures were early stars with masses in the
M
to 10
100
M
range, resulting in the estimated mass for super-
massive black holes in the range mentioned above.
As additional self-similar large scale structure levels de-
veloped, remaining seed black holes at the center of each
emerging large scale structure grew by disrupting and
entraining lowest mass sub-elements of the self-similar
large scale structure.
6z
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