Shining in the Dark: the Spectral Evolution of the First Black Holes

Abstract

Massive Black Hole (MBH) seeds at redshift $z\gtrsim 10$ are now thought to be key ingredients to explain the presence of the super-massive ($10^{9-10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) black holes in place $<1\mathrm{Gyr}$ after the Big Bang. Once formed, massive seeds grow and emit copious amounts of radiation by accreting the left-over halo gas; their spectrum can then provide crucial information on their evolution. By combining radiation-hydrodynamic and spectral synthesis codes, we simulate the time-evolving spectrum emerging from the host halo of a MBH seed with initial mass $10^5{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, assuming both standard Eddington-limited accretion, or slim accretion disks, appropriate for super-Eddington flows. The emission occurs predominantly in the observed infrared-submm ($1-1000\mu \mathrm{m}$) and X-ray ($0.1-100\mathrm{keV}$) bands. Such signal should be easily detectable by JWST around $\sim 1\mu \mathrm{m}$ up to $z\sim 25$, and by ATHENA (between $0.1$ and $10\mathrm{keV}$, up to $z\sim 15$). Ultra-deep X-ray surveys like the Chandra Deep Field South could have already detected these systems up to $z\sim 15$. Based on this, we provide an upper limit for the $z\gtrsim 6$ MBH mass density of ${\rho }_{\bullet }\lesssim 2.5\times 10^2{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-3}$ assuming standard Eddington-limited accretion. If accretion occurs in the slim disk mode the limits are much weaker, ${\rho }_{\bullet }\lesssim 7.6\times 10^3{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-3}$ in the most constraining case.

Submitted for publication in MNRAS

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