_version_ 1866915799399137280
author Fei, Qinyue
Fujimoto, Seiji
Brammer, Gabriel
Li, Ruancun
Ho, Luis C.
Bromm, Volker
Álvarez-Márquez, Javier
Asada, Yoshihisa
Barro, Guillermo
Colina, Luis
Dayal, Pratika
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Fynbo, Johan P. U.
Ginolfi, Michele
Inayoshi, Kohei
Kokorev, Vasily
Leung, Gene C. K.
Matthee, Jorryt
Meyer, Romain A.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Onoue, Masafusa
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Steinhardt, Charles L.
Valentino, Francesco
Walter, Fabian
Xiao, Mengyuan
Zhang, Haowen
author_facet Fei, Qinyue
Fujimoto, Seiji
Brammer, Gabriel
Li, Ruancun
Ho, Luis C.
Bromm, Volker
Álvarez-Márquez, Javier
Asada, Yoshihisa
Barro, Guillermo
Colina, Luis
Dayal, Pratika
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Fynbo, Johan P. U.
Ginolfi, Michele
Inayoshi, Kohei
Kokorev, Vasily
Leung, Gene C. K.
Matthee, Jorryt
Meyer, Romain A.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Onoue, Masafusa
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Steinhardt, Charles L.
Valentino, Francesco
Walter, Fabian
Xiao, Mengyuan
Zhang, Haowen
contents We present a panchromatic optical-mm characterization of GNz7q, a recently identified X-ray weak, rapidly growing red quasar embedded within a dusty starburst galaxy at $z=7.1899$, using the full suite of JWST/NIRCam, NIRSpec, MIRI, and archival NOEMA observations. Our deep NIRSpec/G395M spectroscopy reveals unambiguous broad Balmer emission (FWHM $=2221\pm20$kms$^{-1}$), confirming a super-Eddington accreting black hole ($λ_{\rm Edd}=2.7\pm0.4$) with a mass of $\log(M_{\rm BH}/M_{\odot})=7.55\pm0.34$, using accretion-rate corrected BH mass estimators. After subtracting the point source, we robustly detect stellar emission from the host galaxy across multiple NIRCam and MIRI filters. Out joint morphological-spectral analysis yields a stellar mass of $\log (M_*/M_\odot)=10.5\pm0.4$ and an intense star formation rate of ${\rm SFR}=330\pm97\,M_\odot\,\rm yr^{-1}$, confirming the host as a massive, dusty starburst galaxy. We find that GNz7q lies on the local $M_{\rm BH}$-$M_*$ relation ($M_{\rm BH}/M_*\simeq 0.001$) and is well positioned to evolve into the locus of massive SDSS quasars with $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot)\approx 9$ and $M_*\approx 10^{11}\,M_\odot$ at $z\sim 6$, owing to its remarkably rapid growth in both the black hole and its host galaxy. This stands in stark contrast to many recently reported JWST AGN populations at similar redshifts, including the little red dots (LRDs), whose weak or undetected star formation makes it difficult for them to grow into the massive galaxies hosting SDSS-like quasars. These results suggest that GNz7q marks as a rare, pivotal phase of early BH-galaxy co-eolution, plausibly providing a crucial direct pathway to the supermassive black hole systems within the first billion years of the Universe.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_12325
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Direct pathway to the Early Supermassive Black Holes: A Red Super-Eddington Quasar in a Massive Starburst Host at $z=7.2$
Fei, Qinyue
Fujimoto, Seiji
Brammer, Gabriel
Li, Ruancun
Ho, Luis C.
Bromm, Volker
Álvarez-Márquez, Javier
Asada, Yoshihisa
Barro, Guillermo
Colina, Luis
Dayal, Pratika
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Fynbo, Johan P. U.
Ginolfi, Michele
Inayoshi, Kohei
Kokorev, Vasily
Leung, Gene C. K.
Matthee, Jorryt
Meyer, Romain A.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Onoue, Masafusa
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Steinhardt, Charles L.
Valentino, Francesco
Walter, Fabian
Xiao, Mengyuan
Zhang, Haowen
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present a panchromatic optical-mm characterization of GNz7q, a recently identified X-ray weak, rapidly growing red quasar embedded within a dusty starburst galaxy at $z=7.1899$, using the full suite of JWST/NIRCam, NIRSpec, MIRI, and archival NOEMA observations. Our deep NIRSpec/G395M spectroscopy reveals unambiguous broad Balmer emission (FWHM $=2221\pm20$kms$^{-1}$), confirming a super-Eddington accreting black hole ($λ_{\rm Edd}=2.7\pm0.4$) with a mass of $\log(M_{\rm BH}/M_{\odot})=7.55\pm0.34$, using accretion-rate corrected BH mass estimators. After subtracting the point source, we robustly detect stellar emission from the host galaxy across multiple NIRCam and MIRI filters. Out joint morphological-spectral analysis yields a stellar mass of $\log (M_*/M_\odot)=10.5\pm0.4$ and an intense star formation rate of ${\rm SFR}=330\pm97\,M_\odot\,\rm yr^{-1}$, confirming the host as a massive, dusty starburst galaxy. We find that GNz7q lies on the local $M_{\rm BH}$-$M_*$ relation ($M_{\rm BH}/M_*\simeq 0.001$) and is well positioned to evolve into the locus of massive SDSS quasars with $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot)\approx 9$ and $M_*\approx 10^{11}\,M_\odot$ at $z\sim 6$, owing to its remarkably rapid growth in both the black hole and its host galaxy. This stands in stark contrast to many recently reported JWST AGN populations at similar redshifts, including the little red dots (LRDs), whose weak or undetected star formation makes it difficult for them to grow into the massive galaxies hosting SDSS-like quasars. These results suggest that GNz7q marks as a rare, pivotal phase of early BH-galaxy co-eolution, plausibly providing a crucial direct pathway to the supermassive black hole systems within the first billion years of the Universe.
title Direct pathway to the Early Supermassive Black Holes: A Red Super-Eddington Quasar in a Massive Starburst Host at $z=7.2$
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12325