The origin of the JWST supermassive black holes
We present a new semi-analytical model for the evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that is based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism and phenomenological modelling of star formation. The model yields black-hole-mass – stellar mass relations that reproduce both the JWST and pre-JWST observations. If the efficiency for BH mergers is high, the JWST data prefer light seeds, while the pre-JWST data prefer heavy seeds. The fit improves for a smaller merger efficiency, 𝒪(0.1), for which both data prefer heavy seeds, while also accommodating the pulsar-timing-array gravitational-wave background data.
Authors
- John Ellis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7399-0813)
- Malcolm Fairbairn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0566-4127)
- Juan Urrutia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6035-6610)
- Ville Vaskonen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0003-2259)
Institutions
- Tallinn University of Technology (EE)
- University of Padua (IT)
- King's College London (GB)
- National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (EE)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova (IT)
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Published
- 2025-10-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202555389
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.15
Funders
- European Commission
- Eesti Teadusagentuur
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Science and Technology Facilities Council