Formation of black hole stars via star--black hole collisions

[2608.27596] Formation of black hole stars via star--black hole collisions Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena arXiv:2608.27596 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 27 Aug 2026] Title: Formation of black hole stars via star--black hole collisions Authors: Yanlong Shi , Qingru Hu , Zhenghao Xu , Douglas N. C. Lin , Norman Murray View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: In dense stellar environments such as globular clusters and active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks, stellar-mass black holes (sBHs) may frequently collide with massive stars. We investigate this process using semi-analytic models, three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations, and one-dimensional stellar evolution calculations, focusing on collisions between sBHs and a $100\,M_\odot$ main-sequence star. We find that gas drag retains the BH within the stellar envelope unless the impact velocity exceeds $\sim2\sqrt{G(M_\star+M_\bullet)/R_\star}$. The post-collision outcome depends primarily on the BH-to-star mass ratio. For $M_\bullet\gtrsim30\,M_\odot$, the retained envelope is either quasi-spherical or disc-like, but remains dynamically unstable because of shock heating. In contrast, for $M_\bullet\lesssim10\,M_\odot$, the collision forms a ``black hole star'' (BH*): a quasi-hydrostatic, extended stellar envelope surrounding the embedded BH. These results agree with our analytic prediction that BH* formation necessarily requires $M_\bullet\lesssim0.2\,M_\star$. Follow-up \texttt{MESA} calculations further show that, for these low-mass BHs, the shock-heated remnant thermally relaxes without triggering runaway expansion. We discuss several astrophysical implications of BH*s, including their evolution, the possibility of gravitational-wave events from BH binaries assembled within a stellar envelope, and repeated star--sBH collisions as a pathway for rapid BH growth in dense stellar systems. This mechanism may contribute to the formation of massive BHs in high-redshift nuclear star clusters and may be relevant to the origin of the ``little red dots'' discovered by JWST. Comments: 13 pages, 7 figures Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ; Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) Cite as: arXiv:2608.27596 [astro-ph.HE] (or arXiv:2608.27596v1 [astro-ph.HE] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.27596 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Yanlong Shi [ view email ] [v1] Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:28:50 UTC (7,591 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: astro-ph.HE < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: astro-ph astro-ph.GA astro-ph.SR References & Citations INSPIRE HEP SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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