Article, 2024

A high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in a lensed AGN in the early Universe

Nature, ISSN 0028-0836, 1476-4687, Volume 628, 8006, Pages 57-61, 10.1038/s41586-024-07184-8

Contributors

Furtak, Lukas J 0000-0001-6278-032X (Corresponding author) [1] Labbé, I F L 0000-0002-2057-5376 [2] Zitrin, Adi 0000-0002-0350-4488 [1] Greene, Jenny E. [3] Dayal, Pratika [4] Chemerynska, Iryna 0009-0009-9795-6167 [5] [6] Kokorev, Vasily I 0000-0002-5588-9156 [4] Miller, Tim B 0000-0001-8367-6265 [7] [8] Goulding, Andy D [3] De Graaff, Anna 0000-0002-2380-9801 [9] Bezanson, Rachel [10] Brammer, Gabriel B 0000-0003-2680-005X [11] Cutler, Sam E 0000-0002-7031-2865 [12] Leja, Joel 0000-0001-6755-1315 [13] Pan, Richard [14] Price, Sedona H 0000-0002-0108-4176 [10] Wang, Bingjie [13] Weaver, John R. [12] Whitaker, Katherine E 0000-0001-7160-3632 [11] [12] Atek, Hakim 0000-0002-7570-0824 [5] [6] Bogdan, Akos 0000-0003-0573-7733 [15] Charlot, Stéphane 0000-0003-3458-2275 [5] [6] Curtis-Lake, Emma 0000-0002-9551-0534 [16] van Dokkum, Pieter G [8] Endsley, Ryan [17] Feldmann, Robert 0000-0002-1109-1919 [18] Fudamoto, Yoshinobu 0000-0001-7440-8832 [19] [20] Fujimoto, Seiji [17] Glazebrook, Karl [2] Juneau, Stéphanie 0000-0002-0000-2394 [21] Marchesini, Danilo M 0000-0001-9002-3502 [14] Maseda, Micheal V. [22] Nelson, Erica [23] Oesch, Pascal A 0000-0001-5851-6649 [11] [24] Plat, Adele 0000-0003-0390-0656 [25] Setton, David J. [10] Stark, Daniel P. [25] Williams, Christina C [21] [25]

Affiliations

  1. [1] Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
    2. [NORA names: Israel; Asia, Middle East; OECD];
  2. [2] Swinburne University of Technology
    3. [NORA names: Australia; Oceania; OECD];
  3. [3] Princeton University
    4. [NORA names: United States; America, North; OECD];
  4. [4] University of Groningen
    5. [NORA names: Netherlands; Europe, EU; OECD];
  5. [5] Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
    6. [NORA names: France; Europe, EU; OECD];

Abstract

Early JWST observations have uncovered a population of red sources that might represent a previously overlooked phase of supermassive black hole growth1–3. One of the most intriguing examples is an extremely red, point-like object that was found to be triply imaged by the strong lensing cluster Abell 2744 (ref. 4). Here we present deep JWST/NIRSpec observations of this object, Abell2744-QSO1. The spectroscopy confirms that the three images are of the same object, and that it is a highly reddened (AV ≃ 3) broad emission line active galactic nucleus at a redshift of zspec = 7.0451 ± 0.0005. From the width of Hβ (full width at half-maximum = 2,800 ± 250 km s−1), we derive a black hole mass of MBH=4−1+2×107M⊙$${M}_{{\rm{BH}}}={4}_{-1}^{+2}\times 1{0}^{7}\,{M}_{\odot }$$. We infer a very high ratio of black-hole-to-galaxy mass of at least 3%, an order of magnitude more than that seen in local galaxies5 and possibly as high as 100%. The lack of strong metal lines in the spectrum together with the high bolometric luminosity (Lbol = (1.1 ± 0.3) × 1045 erg s−1) indicate that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit. The rapid growth and high black-hole-to-galaxy mass ratio of Abell2744-QSO1 suggest that it may represent the missing link between black hole seeds6 and one of the first luminous quasars7.

Keywords

AGN, Abell 2744, Eddington, Eddington limit, JWST observations, University, black hole, black hole mass, bolometric luminosity, early universe, examples, galactic nuclei, growth, hole mass, holes, images, lack, lenses, limitations, lines, links, luminosity, magnitude, mass, mass ratio, metal, metal lines, missing link, nucleus, objective, observations, phase, point-like objects, population, ratio, red sources, redshift, source, spectra, spectroscopy, triply, width

Funders

  • Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers
  • Danish National Research Foundation
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Ministry of Science, Technology and Space
  • Dutch Research Council
  • United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
  • Federal Department of Economic Affairs Education and Research
  • Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission
  • Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • European Commission

Data Provider: Digital Science

LINKS
-

Matching Records in NORA

SUBJECTS
+

METRICS
+