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

Lukas J. Furtak (), Ivo Labbé, Adi Zitrin, Jenny E. Greene, Pratika Dayal, Iryna Chemerynska, Vasily Kokorev, Tim B. Miller, Andy D. Goulding, Anna Graaff, Rachel Bezanson, Gabriel B. Brammer, Sam E. Cutler, Joel Leja, Richard Pan, Sedona H. Price, Bingjie Wang, John R. Weaver, Katherine E. Whitaker, Hakim Atek, Ákos Bogdán, Stéphane Charlot, Emma Curtis-Lake, Pieter Dokkum, Ryan Endsley, Robert Feldmann, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Seiji Fujimoto, Karl Glazebrook, Stéphanie Juneau, Danilo Marchesini, Micheal V. Maseda, Erica Nelson, Pascal A. Oesch, Adèle Plat, David J. Setton, Daniel P. Stark and Christina C. Williams
Additional contact information
Lukas J. Furtak: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ivo Labbé: Swinburne University of Technology
Adi Zitrin: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Jenny E. Greene: Princeton University
Pratika Dayal: University of Groningen
Iryna Chemerynska: CNRS, Sorbonne Université
Vasily Kokorev: University of Groningen
Tim B. Miller: Yale University
Andy D. Goulding: Princeton University
Anna Graaff: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
Rachel Bezanson: University of Pittsburgh
Gabriel B. Brammer: University of Copenhagen
Sam E. Cutler: University of Massachusetts
Joel Leja: The Pennsylvania State University
Richard Pan: Tufts University
Sedona H. Price: University of Pittsburgh
Bingjie Wang: The Pennsylvania State University
John R. Weaver: University of Massachusetts
Katherine E. Whitaker: University of Copenhagen
Hakim Atek: CNRS, Sorbonne Université
Ákos Bogdán: Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian
Stéphane Charlot: CNRS, Sorbonne Université
Emma Curtis-Lake: University of Hertfordshire
Pieter Dokkum: Yale University
Ryan Endsley: The University of Texas at Austin
Robert Feldmann: University of Zurich
Yoshinobu Fudamoto: Waseda University
Seiji Fujimoto: The University of Texas at Austin
Karl Glazebrook: Swinburne University of Technology
Stéphanie Juneau: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory
Danilo Marchesini: Tufts University
Micheal V. Maseda: University of Wisconsin–Madison
Erica Nelson: University of Colorado
Pascal A. Oesch: University of Copenhagen
Adèle Plat: University of Arizona
David J. Setton: University of Pittsburgh
Daniel P. Stark: University of Arizona
Christina C. Williams: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory

Nature, 2024, vol. 628, issue 8006, 57-61

Abstract: 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 $${M}_{{\rm{BH}}}={4}_{-1}^{+2}\times 1{0}^{7}\,{M}_{\odot }$$ M BH = 4 − 1 + 2 × 1 0 7 M ⊙ . 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.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07184-8

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