_version_ 1866910942570217472
author Taylor, Anthony J.
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Kocevski, Dale D.
Jeon, Junehyoung
Bromm, Volker
Amorin, Ricardo O.
Haro, Pablo Arrabal
Backhaus, Bren E.
Bagley, Micaela B.
Bañados, Eduardo
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Brooks, Madisyn
Calabro, Antonello
Ortiz, Oscar A. Chavez
Cheng, Yingjie
Cleri, Nikko J.
Cole, Justin W.
Davis, Kelcey
Dickinson, Mark
Donnan, Callum
Dunlop, James S.
Ellis, Richard S.
Fernandez, Vital
Fontana, Adriano
Fujimoto, Seiji
Giavalisco, Mauro
Grazian, Andrea
Guo, Jingsong
Hathi, Nimish P.
Holwerda, Benne W.
Hirschmann, Michaela
Inayoshi, Kohei
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
Khusanova, Yana
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Kokorev, Vasily
Larson, Rebecca L.
Leung, Gene C. K.
Lucas, Ray A.
McLeod, Derek J.
Napolitano, Lorenzo
Onoue, Masafusa
Pacucci, Fabio
Papovich, Casey
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Pirzkal, Nor
Somerville, Rachel S.
Trump, Jonathan R.
Wilkins, Stephen M.
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Zhang, Haowen
author_facet Taylor, Anthony J.
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Kocevski, Dale D.
Jeon, Junehyoung
Bromm, Volker
Amorin, Ricardo O.
Haro, Pablo Arrabal
Backhaus, Bren E.
Bagley, Micaela B.
Bañados, Eduardo
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Brooks, Madisyn
Calabro, Antonello
Ortiz, Oscar A. Chavez
Cheng, Yingjie
Cleri, Nikko J.
Cole, Justin W.
Davis, Kelcey
Dickinson, Mark
Donnan, Callum
Dunlop, James S.
Ellis, Richard S.
Fernandez, Vital
Fontana, Adriano
Fujimoto, Seiji
Giavalisco, Mauro
Grazian, Andrea
Guo, Jingsong
Hathi, Nimish P.
Holwerda, Benne W.
Hirschmann, Michaela
Inayoshi, Kohei
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
Khusanova, Yana
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Kokorev, Vasily
Larson, Rebecca L.
Leung, Gene C. K.
Lucas, Ray A.
McLeod, Derek J.
Napolitano, Lorenzo
Onoue, Masafusa
Pacucci, Fabio
Papovich, Casey
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Pirzkal, Nor
Somerville, Rachel S.
Trump, Jonathan R.
Wilkins, Stephen M.
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Zhang, Haowen
contents We present a sample of 50 H-alpha detected broad-line active galactic nuclei (BLAGN) at redshifts 3.5<z<6.8 using data from the CEERS and RUBIES surveys. We select these sources directly from JWST/NIRSpec G395M/F290LP spectra. We use a multi-step pre-selection and a Bayesian fitting procedure to ensure a high-quality sample of sources with broad Balmer lines and narrow forbidden lines. We compute rest-frame ultraviolet and optical spectral slopes for these objects, and determine that 10 BLAGN in our sample are also little red dots (LRDs). These LRD BLAGN, when examined in aggregate, show broader H-alpha line profiles and a higher fraction of broad-to-narrow component H-alpha emission than non-LRD BLAGN. Moreover, we find that ~66% of these objects are intrinsically reddened (beta (optical)>0), independent of the contributions of emission lines to the broadband photometry. We construct the black hole (BH) mass function at 3.5<z<6 after computing robust observational and line detection completeness corrections. This BH mass function shows broad agreement with both recent JWST/NIRSpec and JWST/NIRCam WFSS based BH mass functions, though we extend these earlier results to log(M(BH)/M(sun)) < 7. The derived BH mass function is consistent with a variety of theoretical models, indicating that the observed abundance of black holes in the early universe is not discrepant with physically-motivated predictions. The BH mass function shape resembles a largely featureless power-law, suggesting that any signature from black-hole seeding has been lost by redshift z~5-6. Finally, we compute the BLAGN UV luminosity function and find good agreement with JWST-detected BLAGN samples from recent works, finding that BLAGN hosts constitute <10% of the total observed UV luminosity at all but the brightest luminosities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_06772
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Broad-Line AGN at 3.5<z<6: The Black Hole Mass Function and a Connection with Little Red Dots
Taylor, Anthony J.
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Kocevski, Dale D.
Jeon, Junehyoung
Bromm, Volker
Amorin, Ricardo O.
Haro, Pablo Arrabal
Backhaus, Bren E.
Bagley, Micaela B.
Bañados, Eduardo
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Brooks, Madisyn
Calabro, Antonello
Ortiz, Oscar A. Chavez
Cheng, Yingjie
Cleri, Nikko J.
Cole, Justin W.
Davis, Kelcey
Dickinson, Mark
Donnan, Callum
Dunlop, James S.
Ellis, Richard S.
Fernandez, Vital
Fontana, Adriano
Fujimoto, Seiji
Giavalisco, Mauro
Grazian, Andrea
Guo, Jingsong
Hathi, Nimish P.
Holwerda, Benne W.
Hirschmann, Michaela
Inayoshi, Kohei
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
Khusanova, Yana
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Kokorev, Vasily
Larson, Rebecca L.
Leung, Gene C. K.
Lucas, Ray A.
McLeod, Derek J.
Napolitano, Lorenzo
Onoue, Masafusa
Pacucci, Fabio
Papovich, Casey
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Pirzkal, Nor
Somerville, Rachel S.
Trump, Jonathan R.
Wilkins, Stephen M.
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Zhang, Haowen
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present a sample of 50 H-alpha detected broad-line active galactic nuclei (BLAGN) at redshifts 3.5<z<6.8 using data from the CEERS and RUBIES surveys. We select these sources directly from JWST/NIRSpec G395M/F290LP spectra. We use a multi-step pre-selection and a Bayesian fitting procedure to ensure a high-quality sample of sources with broad Balmer lines and narrow forbidden lines. We compute rest-frame ultraviolet and optical spectral slopes for these objects, and determine that 10 BLAGN in our sample are also little red dots (LRDs). These LRD BLAGN, when examined in aggregate, show broader H-alpha line profiles and a higher fraction of broad-to-narrow component H-alpha emission than non-LRD BLAGN. Moreover, we find that ~66% of these objects are intrinsically reddened (beta (optical)>0), independent of the contributions of emission lines to the broadband photometry. We construct the black hole (BH) mass function at 3.5<z<6 after computing robust observational and line detection completeness corrections. This BH mass function shows broad agreement with both recent JWST/NIRSpec and JWST/NIRCam WFSS based BH mass functions, though we extend these earlier results to log(M(BH)/M(sun)) < 7. The derived BH mass function is consistent with a variety of theoretical models, indicating that the observed abundance of black holes in the early universe is not discrepant with physically-motivated predictions. The BH mass function shape resembles a largely featureless power-law, suggesting that any signature from black-hole seeding has been lost by redshift z~5-6. Finally, we compute the BLAGN UV luminosity function and find good agreement with JWST-detected BLAGN samples from recent works, finding that BLAGN hosts constitute <10% of the total observed UV luminosity at all but the brightest luminosities.
title Broad-Line AGN at 3.5<z<6: The Black Hole Mass Function and a Connection with Little Red Dots
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06772