A dormant overmassive black hole in the early Universe

Recent observations have found a large number of supermassive black holes already in place in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang, many of which seem to be overmassive relative to their host galaxy stellar mass when compared with local relation<sup>1-9</sup>. Several different models have been proposed to explain these findings, ranging from heavy seeds to light seeds experiencing bursts of high accretion rate<sup>10-16</sup>. Yet, current datasets are unable to differentiate between these various scenarios. Here we report the detection, from the JADES survey, of broad Hα emission in a galaxy at z = 6.68, which traces a black hole with a mass of about 4 × 10<sup>8</sup>M<sub>⊙</sub> and accreting at a rate of only 0.02 times the Eddington limit. The black hole to host galaxy stellar mass ratio is about 0.4-that is, about 1,000 times above the local relation-whereas the system is closer to the local relations in terms of dynamical mass and velocity dispersion of the host galaxy. This object is most likely an indication of a much larger population of dormant black holes around the epoch of reionization. Its properties are consistent with scenarios in which short bursts of super-Eddington accretion have resulted in black hole overgrowth and massive gas expulsion from the accretion disk; in between bursts, black holes spend most of their life in a dormant state.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2024-12-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08210-5
Citations
72
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
23.87

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article

A dormant overmassive black hole in the early Universe

Raffaella Schneider, Francesco D’Eugenio, Joris Witstok, Santiago Arribas et al.
72 citations
Nature
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
23.87
article

A dormant overmassive black hole in the early Universe

Raffaella Schneider, Francesco D’Eugenio, Joris Witstok, Santiago Arribas, Michele Perna, R. Maiolino, Debora Sijacki, Jake S. Bennett, Stefano Carniani, Ignas Juodžbalis, Jacopo Chevallard, Sandro Tacchella, Chris J. Willott, Alessandro Trinca, S. Charlot, Mirko Curti, Sophie Koudmani, Martin A. Bourne, Christina C. Williams, Jan Scholtz, Christa DeCoursey, Hannah Übler, William Baker, Andrew J. Bunker, Brant E. Robertson, Rosa Valiante, Anna de Graaff, Brian Jiang
article en
72 citations

Abstract

Recent observations have found a large number of supermassive black holes already in place in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang, many of which seem to be overmassive relative to their host galaxy stellar mass when compared with local relation<sup>1-9</sup>. Several different models have been proposed to explain these findings, ranging from heavy seeds to light seeds experiencing bursts of high accretion rate<sup>10-16</sup>. Yet, current datasets are unable to differentiate between these various scenarios. Here we report the detection, from the JADES survey, of broad Hα emission in a galaxy at z = 6.68, which traces a black hole with a mass of about 4 × 10<sup>8</sup>M<sub>⊙</sub> and accreting at a rate of only 0.02 times the Eddington limit. The black hole to host galaxy stellar mass ratio is about 0.4-that is, about 1,000 times above the local relation-whereas the system is closer to the local relations in terms of dynamical mass and velocity dispersion of the host galaxy. This object is most likely an indication of a much larger population of dormant black holes around the epoch of reionization. Its properties are consistent with scenarios in which short bursts of super-Eddington accretion have resulted in black hole overgrowth and massive gas expulsion from the accretion disk; in between bursts, black holes spend most of their life in a dormant state.

NatureVol. 636(8043)
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), European Southern Observatory (DE), Harvard University (US), University of Arizona (US), University of Hertfordshire (GB), Scuola Normale Superiore (IT), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), University of Cambridge (GB), Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Oxford (GB), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Institute of Astronomy (RU), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), NSF NOIRLab (US), Flatiron Health (United States) (US), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma I (IT), Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
23.87
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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