Is GN-z11 powered by a super-Eddington massive black hole?

Abstract

Observations of $z\sim 6$ quasars powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs; $M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sim 10^{8-10}{M}_{\odot }$) challenge our current understanding of early black hole (BH) formation and evolution. The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has enabled the study of massive BHs (MBHs; $M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sim 10^{6-7}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) up to $z\sim 11$, thus bridging the properties of $z\sim 6$ quasars to their ancestors. The JWST spectroscopic observations of GN-z11, a well-known $z=10.6$ star-forming galaxy, have been interpreted with the presence of a super-Eddington (Eddington ratio $\equiv {\lambda }_{\mathrm{Edd}}\sim 5.5$) accreting MBH. To test this hypothesis, we used a zoom-in cosmological simulation of galaxy formation and BH co-evolution. We first tested the simulation results against the observed probability distribution function (PDF) of ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{Edd}}$ found in $z\sim 6$ quasars. Then, in the simulation we selected the BHs that satisfy the following criteria: (a) $10<z<11$, (b) $M_{\mathrm{BH}}>10^6{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Next, we apply the extreme value statistics to the PDF of ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{Edd}}$ resulting from the simulation and we find that the probability of observing a $z\sim 10-11$ MBH accreting with ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{Edd}}\sim 5.5$ in the volume surveyed by JWST is very low ($<0.2\%$). We compared our predictions with those in the literature, and discuss the main limitations of our work. Our simulation cannot explain the JWST observations of GN-z11. This might be due to (i) poor resolution and statistics in simulations, (ii) simplistic sub-grid models (e.g. BH accretion and seeding), (iii) uncertainties in the data analysis and interpretation.

arXiv comment8 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (72)

• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Large scale bias and the peak background split
• A Catalog of Quasar Properties from SDSS DR7
• In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• An 800-million-solar-mass black hole in a significantly neutral Universe at redshift 7.5
• Massive Black Holes as Population III Remnants
• Relations Between Central Black Hole Mass and Total Galaxy Stellar Mass in the Local Universe
• Multi-scale initial conditions for cosmological simulations
• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• The Assembly of the First Massive Black Holes
• A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at z=11.1 Measured with Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy
• Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at $z\approx 10-12$ Revealed by JWST
• Mass Functions of the Active Black Holes in Distant Quasars from the Large Bright Quasar Survey, the Bright Quasar Survey, and the Color-Selected Sample of the SDSS Fall Equatorial Stripe
• JADES NIRSpec Spectroscopy of GN-z11: Lyman-$\alpha$ emission and possible enhanced nitrogen abundance in a $z=10.60$ luminous galaxy
• A CEERS Discovery of an Accreting Supermassive Black Hole 570 Myr after the Big Bang: Identifying a Progenitor of Massive z > 6 Quasars
• Pōniuā'ena: A Luminous $z=7.5$ Quasar Hosting a 1.5 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole
• An ALMA [CII] survey of 27 quasars at z>5.94
• Comparing Single-Epoch Virial Black Hole Mass Estimators for Luminous Quasars
• The origins of massive black holes
• Super-Critical Growth of Massive Black Holes from Stellar-Mass Seeds
• Black Hole Growth to z = 2 - I: Improved Virial Methods for Measuring M_BH and L/L_Edd
• On the stunning abundance of super-early, massive galaxies revealed by JWST
• JWST CEERS & JADES Active Galaxies at z = 4-7 Violate the Local $M_{\bullet }-M_{\star }$ Relation at $>3\sigma$: Implications for Low-Mass Black Holes and Seeding Models
• Correcting CIV-Based Virial Black Hole Masses
• Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations I: M_BH-M_star relation and black hole mass function
• Formation of supermassive black hole seeds
• JADES Imaging of GN-z11: Revealing the Morphology and Environment of a Luminous Galaxy 430 Myr After the Big Bang
• Initial mass function of intermediate mass black hole seeds
• Essential physics of early galaxy formation
• Slim disks around Kerr black holes revisited
• Kiloparsec-scale ALMA Imaging of [CII] and Dust Continuum Emission of 27 Quasar Host Galaxies at z~6
• Extreme Value Statistics of the Halo and Stellar Mass Distributions at High Redshift: are JWST Results in Tension with ΛCDM?
• Super-Eddington growth of the first black holes
• Growing massive black holes through super-critical accretion of stellar-mass seeds
• Copious Amounts of Dust and Gas in a z=7.5 Quasar Host Galaxy
• High-redshift formation and evolution of central massive objects II: The census of BH seeds
• The X-shooter/ALMA Sample of Quasars in the Epoch of Reionization. II. Black Hole Masses, Eddington Ratios, and the Formation of the First Quasars
• The Growth of Black Holes from Population III Remnants in the Renaissance Simulations
• The low-end of the black hole mass function at cosmic dawn
• Probing the interstellar medium and star formation of the Most Luminous Quasar at z=6.3
• The ALMA view of the high-redshift relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
• The route to massive black hole formation via merger-driven direct collapse: a review
• Black Holes in the Early Universe
• z~7 galaxy candidates from NICMOS observations over the HDF South and the CDF-S and HDF-N GOODS fields
• XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER quasar sample at the reionization epoch
• A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE): A First Look at the Rest-frame Optical Spectra of $z>6.5$ Quasars Using JWST
• Conditions for Optimal Growth of Black Hole Seeds
• Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations II: the AGN population and predictions for upcoming X-ray missions
• Revealing the Accretion Physics of Supermassive Black Holes at Redshift z~7 with Chandra and Infrared Observations
• The VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey: evidence for AGN feedback in galaxies with CIII]-$\lambda$1908Å~emission 10.8 to 12.5 Gyr ago
• How the super-Eddington regime regulates black hole growth in high-redshift galaxies
• Kinetic and radiative power from optically thin accretion flows
• Host galaxies of high-redshift quasars: supermassive black hole growth and feedback
• XQR-30: Black Hole Masses and Accretion Rates of 42 z>6 Quasars
• Molecular gas in z~6 quasar host galaxies
• Simulating the growth of Intermediate Mass Black Holes
• Sustained super-Eddington accretion in high-redshift quasars
• The sustainable growth of the first black holes
• Physical properties of the first quasars
• Most massive halos with Gumbel Statistics
• On the effect of galactic outflows in cosmological simulations of disc galaxies
• Primordial Non-Gaussianity and Extreme-Value Statistics of Galaxy Clusters
• Exact Extreme Value Statistics and the Halo Mass Function
• Chemical evolution of disc galaxies from cosmological simulations
• A Snapshot Survey for Gravitational Lenses Among z>=4.0 Quasars: II. Constraints on the 4.0<z<4.5 Quasar Population
• Extreme-Value Statistics of the Spin of Primordial Black Holes
• On a novel approach using massive clusters at high redshifts as cosmological probe
• Extreme value statistics of smooth random Gaussian fields
• Cosmic microwave background anomalies viewed via Gumbel Statistics
• Multi-line assessment of narrow-line regions in $z\sim$ 3 radio galaxies
• Growth problems of stellar black holes in early galaxies

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Insight into the Starburst Nature of Galaxy GN-z11 with JWST MIRI Spectroscopy
• Can primordial black holes explain the overabundance of bright super-early galaxies?
• MIRI spectrophotometry of GN-z11: Detection and nature of an optical red continuum component
• Multi-wavelength properties of $z\gtrsim 6$ LISA detectable events