The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
UNCOVER Spectroscopy Confirms the Surprising Ubiquity of Active Galactic Nuclei in Red Sources at z > 5
- Jenny E. Greene,
- Ivo Labbe,
- Andy D. Goulding,
- Lukas J. Furtak,
- Iryna Chemerynska,
- Vasily Kokorev,
- Pratika Dayal,
- Marta Volonteri,
- Christina C. Williams,
- Bingjie Wang,
- David J. Setton,
- Adam J. Burgasser,
- Rachel Bezanson,
- Hakim Atek,
- Gabriel Brammer,
- Sam E. Cutler,
- Robert Feldmann,
- Seiji Fujimoto,
- Karl Glazebrook,
- Anna de Graaff,
- Gourav Khullar,
- Joel Leja,
- Danilo Marchesini,
- Michael V. Maseda,
- Jorryt Matthee,
- Tim B. Miller,
- Rohan P. Naidu,
- Themiya Nanayakkara,
- Pascal A. Oesch,
- Richard Pan,
- Casey Papovich,
- Sedona H. Price,
- Pieter van Dokkum,
- John R. Weaver,
- Katherine E. Whitaker,
- Adi Zitrin
Affiliations
- Jenny E. Greene
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Ivo Labbe
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Andy D. Goulding
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Lukas J. Furtak
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
- Iryna Chemerynska
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France
- Vasily Kokorev
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
- Pratika Dayal
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
- Marta Volonteri
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France
- Christina C. Williams
- ORCiD
- NSFs National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Bingjie Wang
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- David J. Setton
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Adam J. Burgasser
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, UC San Diego , La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- Rachel Bezanson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Hakim Atek
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France
- Gabriel Brammer
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Sam E. Cutler
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Robert Feldmann
- ORCiD
- Institute for Computational Science, University of Zurich , Zurich CH-8057, Switzerland
- Seiji Fujimoto
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Karl Glazebrook
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
- Anna de Graaff
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Gourav Khullar
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Joel Leja
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Danilo Marchesini
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, Tufts University , 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Michael V. Maseda
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison , 475 N. Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 USA
- Jorryt Matthee
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics , ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland; Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) , Am Campus 1, Klosterneuburg, Austria
- Tim B. Miller
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics & Astronomy, Northwestern University , IL 60201, USA
- Rohan P. Naidu
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Themiya Nanayakkara
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
- Pascal A. Oesch
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark; Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Richard Pan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, Tufts University , 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Casey Papovich
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242 USA; George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242 USA
- Sedona H. Price
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Pieter van Dokkum
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Department, Yale University , 52 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- John R. Weaver
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Katherine E. Whitaker
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark
- Adi Zitrin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1e5f
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 964,
no. 1
p. 39
Abstract
The James Webb Space Telescope is revealing a new population of dust-reddened broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) at redshifts z ≳ 5. Here we present deep NIRSpec/Prism spectroscopy from the Cycle 1 Treasury program Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER) of 15 AGN candidates selected to be compact, with red continua in the rest-frame optical but with blue slopes in the UV. From NIRCam photometry alone, they could have been dominated by dusty star formation or an AGN. Here we show that the majority of the compact red sources in UNCOVER are dust-reddened AGN: 60% show definitive evidence for broad-line H α with a FWHM > 2000 km s ^−1 , 20% of the current data are inconclusive, and 20% are brown dwarf stars. We propose an updated photometric criterion to select red z > 5 AGN that excludes brown dwarfs and is expected to yield >80% AGN. Remarkably, among all z _phot > 5 galaxies with F277W – F444W > 1 in UNCOVER at least 33% are AGN regardless of compactness, climbing to at least 80% AGN for sources with F277W – F444W > 1.6. The confirmed AGN have black hole masses of 10 ^7 –10 ^9 M _⊙ . While their UV luminosities (−16 > M _UV > −20 AB mag) are low compared to UV-selected AGN at these epochs, consistent with percent-level scattered AGN light or low levels of unobscured star formation, the inferred bolometric luminosities are typical of 10 ^7 –10 ^9 M _⊙ black holes radiating at ∼10%–40% the Eddington limit. The number densities are surprisingly high at ∼10 ^−5 Mpc ^−3 mag ^−1 , 100 times more common than the faintest UV-selected quasars, while accounting for ∼1% of the UV-selected galaxies. While their UV faintness suggests they may not contribute strongly to reionization, their ubiquity poses challenges to models of black hole growth.
Keywords
