TY - JOUR
T1 - Tracing the rise of supermassive black holes A panchromatic search for faint, unobscured quasars at z & 6 with COSMOS-Web and other surveys
AU - Andika, Irham T.
AU - Jahnke, Knud
AU - Onoue, Masafusa
AU - Silverman, John D.
AU - Fitriana, Itsna K.
AU - Bongiorno, Angela
AU - Brinch, Malte
AU - Casey, Caitlin M.
AU - Faisst, Andreas
AU - Gillman, Steven
AU - Gozaliasl, Ghassem
AU - Hayward, Christopher C.
AU - Hirschmann, Michaela
AU - Kocevski, Dale
AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.
AU - Kokorev, Vasily
AU - Lambrides, Erini
AU - Lee, Minju M.
AU - Rich, Robert Michael
AU - Trakhtenbrot, Benny
AU - Urry, Claudia Megan
AU - Wilkins, Stephen M.
AU - Vijayan, Aswin P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors 2024.
PY - 2024/5/1
Y1 - 2024/5/1
N2 - We report the identification of 64 new candidates of compact galaxies, potentially hosting faint quasars with bolometric luminosities of Lbol = 1043–1046 erg s−1, residing in the reionization epoch within the redshift range of 6 . z . 8. These candidates were selected by harnessing the rich multiband datasets provided by the emerging JWST-driven extragalactic surveys, focusing on COSMOS-Web, as well as JADES, UNCOVER, CEERS, and PRIMER. Our search strategy includes two stages: applying stringent photometric cuts to catalog-level data and detailed spectral energy distribution fitting. These techniques effectively isolate the quasar candidates while mitigating contamination from low-redshift interlopers, such as brown dwarfs and nearby galaxies. The selected candidates indicate physical traits compatible with low-luminosity active galactic nuclei, likely hosting ≈105–107 M supermassive black holes (SMBHs) living in galaxies with stellar masses of ≈108–1010 M . The SMBHs selected in this study, on average, exhibit an elevated mass compared to their hosts, with the mass ratio distribution slightly higher than those of galaxies in the local Universe. As with other high-z studies, this is at least in part due to the selection method for these quasars. An extensive Monte Carlo analysis provides compelling evidence that heavy black hole seeds from the direct collapse scenario appear to be the preferred pathway to mature this specific subset of SMBHs by z ≈ 7. Notably, most of the selected candidates might have emerged from seeds with masses of ∼105 M , assuming a thin disk accretion with an average Eddington ratio of fEdd = 0.6±0.3 and a radiative efficiency of ε = 0.2±0.1. This work underscores the significance of further spectroscopic observations, as the quasar candidates presented here offer exceptional opportunities to delve into the nature of the earliest galaxies and SMBHs that formed during cosmic infancy.
AB - We report the identification of 64 new candidates of compact galaxies, potentially hosting faint quasars with bolometric luminosities of Lbol = 1043–1046 erg s−1, residing in the reionization epoch within the redshift range of 6 . z . 8. These candidates were selected by harnessing the rich multiband datasets provided by the emerging JWST-driven extragalactic surveys, focusing on COSMOS-Web, as well as JADES, UNCOVER, CEERS, and PRIMER. Our search strategy includes two stages: applying stringent photometric cuts to catalog-level data and detailed spectral energy distribution fitting. These techniques effectively isolate the quasar candidates while mitigating contamination from low-redshift interlopers, such as brown dwarfs and nearby galaxies. The selected candidates indicate physical traits compatible with low-luminosity active galactic nuclei, likely hosting ≈105–107 M supermassive black holes (SMBHs) living in galaxies with stellar masses of ≈108–1010 M . The SMBHs selected in this study, on average, exhibit an elevated mass compared to their hosts, with the mass ratio distribution slightly higher than those of galaxies in the local Universe. As with other high-z studies, this is at least in part due to the selection method for these quasars. An extensive Monte Carlo analysis provides compelling evidence that heavy black hole seeds from the direct collapse scenario appear to be the preferred pathway to mature this specific subset of SMBHs by z ≈ 7. Notably, most of the selected candidates might have emerged from seeds with masses of ∼105 M , assuming a thin disk accretion with an average Eddington ratio of fEdd = 0.6±0.3 and a radiative efficiency of ε = 0.2±0.1. This work underscores the significance of further spectroscopic observations, as the quasar candidates presented here offer exceptional opportunities to delve into the nature of the earliest galaxies and SMBHs that formed during cosmic infancy.
KW - galaxies: active
KW - galaxies: high-redshift
KW - methods: data analysis
KW - methods: observational
KW - quasars: general
KW - quasars: supermassive black holes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192471715&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/202349025
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202349025
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AN - SCOPUS:85192471715
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 685
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - A25
ER -