The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
UNCOVER: A NIRSpec Identification of a Broad-line AGN at z = 8.50
- Vasily Kokorev,
- Seiji Fujimoto,
- Ivo Labbe,
- Jenny E. Greene,
- Rachel Bezanson,
- Pratika Dayal,
- Erica J. Nelson,
- Hakim Atek,
- Gabriel Brammer,
- Karina I. Caputi,
- Iryna Chemerynska,
- Sam E. Cutler,
- Robert Feldmann,
- Yoshinobu Fudamoto,
- Lukas J. Furtak,
- Andy D. Goulding,
- Anna de Graaff,
- Joel Leja,
- Danilo Marchesini,
- Tim B. Miller,
- Themiya Nanayakkara,
- Pascal A. Oesch,
- Richard Pan,
- Sedona H. Price,
- David J. Setton,
- Renske Smit,
- Mauro Stefanon,
- Bingjie Wang,
- John R. Weaver,
- Katherine E. Whitaker,
- Christina C. Williams,
- Adi Zitrin
Affiliations
- Vasily Kokorev
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands ; [email protected]
- Seiji Fujimoto
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Ivo Labbe
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Jenny E. Greene
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Rachel Bezanson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Pratika Dayal
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands ; [email protected]
- Erica J. Nelson
- ORCiD
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309, 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
- Karina I. Caputi
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands ; [email protected]; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Iryna Chemerynska
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014, Paris, France
- 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
- Yoshinobu Fudamoto
- ORCiD
- Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University , 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , 2-21-1, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
- Lukas J. Furtak
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Be’er-Sheva 84105, Israel
- Andy D. Goulding
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Anna de Graaff
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany
- 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 , Medford, MA 02155, USA
- 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 and Astronomy, Northwestern University , 1800 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201, USA
- Themiya Nanayakkara
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, 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 , Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Sedona H. Price
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- David J. Setton
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Renske Smit
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University , 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
- Mauro Stefanon
- ORCiD
- Departament d’Astronomia i Astrofìsica, Universitat de València , C. Dr. Moliner 50, E-46100 Burjassot, València, Spain; Unidad Asociada CSIC “Grupo de Astrofísica Extragaláctica y Cosmología” ( Instituto de Física de Cantabria—Universitat de València ), Spain
- 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
- John R. Weaver
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Katherine E. Whitaker
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark; Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Christina C. Williams
- ORCiD
- NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Adi Zitrin
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Be’er-Sheva 84105, Israel
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad037a
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 957,
no. 1
p. L7
Abstract
Deep observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an emerging population of red pointlike sources that could provide a link between the postulated supermassive black hole seeds and observed quasars. In this work, we present a JWST/NIRSpec spectrum from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey of a massive accreting black hole at z = 8.50 displaying a clear broad-line component as inferred from the H β line with FWHM = 3439 ± 413 km s ^−1 , typical of the broad-line region of an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The AGN nature of this object is further supported by high ionization, as inferred from emission lines, and a point-source morphology. We compute a black hole mass of ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{\mathrm{BH}}/{M}_{\odot })=8.17\pm 0.42$ and a bolometric luminosity of L _bol ∼ 6.6 × 10 ^45 erg s ^−1 . These values imply that our object is accreting at ∼40% of the Eddington limit. Detailed modeling of the spectral energy distribution in the optical and near-infrared, together with constraints from ALMA, indicate an upper limit on the stellar mass of ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot })\lt 8.7$ , which would lead to an unprecedented ratio of black hole to host mass of at least ∼30%. This is orders of magnitude higher compared to the local QSOs but consistent with recent AGN studies at high redshift with JWST. This finding suggests that a nonnegligible fraction of supermassive black holes either started out from massive seeds and/or grew at a super-Eddington rate at high redshift. Given the predicted number densities of high- z faint AGN, future NIRSpec observations of larger samples will allow us to further investigate galaxy–black hole coevolution in the early Universe.
Keywords
