Supermassive black holes are growing slowly by $z\sim5$

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Hauptverfasser: Lai, Samuel, Onken, Christopher A., Wolf, Christian, Bian, Fuyan, Fan, Xiaohui
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Lai, Samuel
Onken, Christopher A.
Wolf, Christian
Bian, Fuyan
Fan, Xiaohui
author_facet Lai, Samuel
Onken, Christopher A.
Wolf, Christian
Bian, Fuyan
Fan, Xiaohui
contents We investigate the black hole mass function at $z\sim5$ using XQz5, our recent sample of the most luminous quasars between the redshifts $4.5 < z < 5.3$. We include 72 quasars with black hole masses estimated from velocity-broadened emission-line measurements and single-epoch virial prescriptions in the footprint of a highly complete parent survey. The sample mean Eddington ratio and standard deviation is $\logλ\approx -0.20\pm0.24$. The completeness-corrected mass function is modelled as a double power-law, and we constrain its evolution across redshift assuming accretion-dominated mass growth. We estimate the evolution of the mass function from $z=5-4$, presenting joint constraints on accretion properties through a measured dimensionless e-folding parameter, $k_{\rm{ef}} \equiv \langleλ\rangle U (1-ε)/ε= 1.79\pm0.06$, where $\langleλ\rangle$ is the mean Eddington ratio, $U$ is the duty cycle, and $ε$ is the radiative efficiency. If these supermassive black holes were to form from seeds smaller than $10^8\,M_{\odot}$, the growth rate must have been considerably faster at $z\gg5$ than observed from $z=5-4$. A growth rate exceeding $3\times$ the observed rate would reduce the initial heavy seed mass to $10^{5-6}\,M_{\odot}$, aligning with supermassive star and/or direct collapse seed masses. Stellar mass ($10^2\,M_{\odot}$) black hole seeds would require $\gtrsim4.5\times$ the observed growth rate at $z\gg5$ to reproduce the measured active black hole mass function. A possible pathway to produce the most extreme quasars is radiatively inefficient accretion flow, suggesting black holes with low angular momentum or photon trapping in supercritically accreting thick discs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_10721
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Supermassive black holes are growing slowly by $z\sim5$
Lai, Samuel
Onken, Christopher A.
Wolf, Christian
Bian, Fuyan
Fan, Xiaohui
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We investigate the black hole mass function at $z\sim5$ using XQz5, our recent sample of the most luminous quasars between the redshifts $4.5 < z < 5.3$. We include 72 quasars with black hole masses estimated from velocity-broadened emission-line measurements and single-epoch virial prescriptions in the footprint of a highly complete parent survey. The sample mean Eddington ratio and standard deviation is $\logλ\approx -0.20\pm0.24$. The completeness-corrected mass function is modelled as a double power-law, and we constrain its evolution across redshift assuming accretion-dominated mass growth. We estimate the evolution of the mass function from $z=5-4$, presenting joint constraints on accretion properties through a measured dimensionless e-folding parameter, $k_{\rm{ef}} \equiv \langleλ\rangle U (1-ε)/ε= 1.79\pm0.06$, where $\langleλ\rangle$ is the mean Eddington ratio, $U$ is the duty cycle, and $ε$ is the radiative efficiency. If these supermassive black holes were to form from seeds smaller than $10^8\,M_{\odot}$, the growth rate must have been considerably faster at $z\gg5$ than observed from $z=5-4$. A growth rate exceeding $3\times$ the observed rate would reduce the initial heavy seed mass to $10^{5-6}\,M_{\odot}$, aligning with supermassive star and/or direct collapse seed masses. Stellar mass ($10^2\,M_{\odot}$) black hole seeds would require $\gtrsim4.5\times$ the observed growth rate at $z\gg5$ to reproduce the measured active black hole mass function. A possible pathway to produce the most extreme quasars is radiatively inefficient accretion flow, suggesting black holes with low angular momentum or photon trapping in supercritically accreting thick discs.
title Supermassive black holes are growing slowly by $z\sim5$
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.10721