JADES reveals a large population of low-mass black holes at high redshift

ABSTRACT James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a large population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the distant Universe, which are challenging our understanding of early massive black hole (BH) seeding and growth. We expand the exploration of this population to lower luminosities by stacking $\sim$600 NIRSpec grating spectra from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) at $3< z < 7$, in bins of redshift, [O iii]5007 luminosity and equivalent width, UV luminosity, and stellar mass. In multiple stacks, we detect a broad component of H $\alpha$ without a counterpart in [O iii], implying that it is not due to outflows but traces the broad-line region of a large population of low-luminosity AGNs not detected in individual spectra. The detection, in some stacks, of high [O iii]4363/H $\gamma$, typical of AGNs, further confirms the detection of a large population of AGNs. We infer that the stacks probe BHs with masses of a few times $10^{6} {\rm M}_{\odot }$ accreting at rates $L/L_{Edd}$$\sim$ 0.02–0.1, i.e. a low-mass and dormant parameter space poorly explored by previous studies on individual targets. We identify populations of BHs that fall within the scatter of the local $M_{BH}\!-\!M_{*}$ scaling relation, indicating that there is a population of high-z BHs that are not overmassive relative to their host galaxies. Yet, on average, the stacks are still overmassive relative the local relation, with some of them 1–2 dex above it. We infer that the BH mass function at $3< z < 5$ is consistent with models in which BHs evolve through short bursts of super-Eddington accretion.

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Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-11-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1979
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.62

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article

JADES reveals a large population of low-mass black holes at high redshift

Pratika Dayal, Raffaella Schneider, Francesco D’Eugenio, Joris Witstok et al.
4 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
4.62
article

JADES reveals a large population of low-mass black holes at high redshift

Pratika Dayal, Raffaella Schneider, Francesco D’Eugenio, Joris Witstok, Santiago Arribas, R. Maiolino, Benjamin D. Johnson, Stefano Carniani, Ignas Juodžbalis, Jacopo Chevallard, Sandro Tacchella, Rachana Bhatawdekar, Alessandro Trinca, Xihan Ji, Charlotte Simmonds, S. Charlot, Christina C. Williams, Pierluigi Rinaldi, Hannah Übler, Jan Scholtz, Emma Curtis-Lake, Andrew J. Bunker, Brant E. Robertson, Yuki Isobe, Giacomo Venturi, Eleonora Parlanti, Sophia Geris
article en
4 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a large population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the distant Universe, which are challenging our understanding of early massive black hole (BH) seeding and growth. We expand the exploration of this population to lower luminosities by stacking $\sim$600 NIRSpec grating spectra from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) at $3< z < 7$, in bins of redshift, [O iii]5007 luminosity and equivalent width, UV luminosity, and stellar mass. In multiple stacks, we detect a broad component of H $\alpha$ without a counterpart in [O iii], implying that it is not due to outflows but traces the broad-line region of a large population of low-luminosity AGNs not detected in individual spectra. The detection, in some stacks, of high [O iii]4363/H $\gamma$, typical of AGNs, further confirms the detection of a large population of AGNs. We infer that the stacks probe BHs with masses of a few times $10^{6} {\rm M}_{\odot }$ accreting at rates $L/L_{Edd}$$\sim$ 0.02–0.1, i.e. a low-mass and dormant parameter space poorly explored by previous studies on individual targets. We identify populations of BHs that fall within the scatter of the local $M_{BH}\!-\!M_{*}$ scaling relation, indicating that there is a population of high-z BHs that are not overmassive relative to their host galaxies. Yet, on average, the stacks are still overmassive relative the local relation, with some of them 1–2 dex above it. We infer that the BH mass function at $3< z < 5$ is consistent with models in which BHs evolve through short bursts of super-Eddington accretion.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 545(1)
University of Insubria (IT), University of Copenhagen (DK), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Arizona (US), University of Hertfordshire (GB), Waseda University (JP), Scuola Normale Superiore (IT), University of Groningen (NL), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), University of Toronto (CA), University of Cambridge (GB), Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR), European Space Agency (FR), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Oxford (GB), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE), European Space Astronomy Centre (ES), DAWN Center for Independent Living (US), Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CA), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), NSF NOIRLab (US), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma I (IT), University College London (GB), Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
National Science Foundation, University of California, Santa Cruz, UK Research and Innovation, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Cambridge Trust, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Woolf Fisher Trust, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
4.62
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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