2025ApJ...986..165T


Query : 2025ApJ...986..165T

2025ApJ...986..165T - Astrophys. J., 986, 165 (2025/June-3)

Broad-line AGNs at 3.5 < z < 6: The Black Hole Mass Function and a Connection with Little Red Dots.

TAYLOR A.J., FINKELSTEIN S.L., KOCEVSKI D.D., JEON J., BROMM V., AMORIN R.O., ARRABAL HARO P., BACKHAUS B.E., BAGLEY M.B., BANADOS E., BHATAWDEKAR R., BROOKS M., CALABRO A., CHAVEZ ORTIZ O.A., CHENG Y., CLERI N.J., COLE J.W., DAVIS K., DICKINSON M., DONNAN C., DUNLOP J.S., ELLIS R.S., FERNANDEZ V., FONTANA A., FUJIMOTO S., GIAVALISCO M., GRAZIAN A., GUO J., HATHI N.P., HOLWERDA B.W., HIRSCHMANN M., INAYOSHI K., KARTALTEPE J.S., KHUSANOVA Y., KOEKEMOER A.M., KOKOREV V., LARSON R.L., LEUNG G.C.K., LUCAS R.A., McLEOD D.J., NAPOLITANO L., ONOUE M., PACUCCI F., PAPOVICH C., PEREZ-GONZALEZ P.G., PIRZKAL N., SOMERVILLE R.S., TRUMP J.R., WILKINS S.M., YUNG L.Y.A. and ZHANG H.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present a sample of 62 Hα detected broad-line active galactic nuclei (BLAGNs) 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 multistep pre-selection and Bayesian fitting 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 21 BLAGNs in our sample are also little red dots (LRDs). These LRD BLAGNs, when examined in aggregate, show broader Hα line profiles and a higher fraction of broad-to-narrow component Hα emission than non-LRD BLAGNs. We find that ∼90% of LRD BLAGNs are intrinsically reddened (βopt > 0), independent of contributions from emission lines to the broadband photometry. We construct the black hole (BH) mass function at 3.5 < z < 6 after computing robust completeness corrections. This BH mass function shows agreement with recent JWST-based BH mass functions, though we extend these earlier results to log (MBH/M⊙) < 7. The derived BH mass function is consistent with theoretical models, indicating that the observed abundance of BHs in the early Universe may not be discrepant with physically motivated predictions. The BH mass function shape resembles a largely featureless power law, suggesting that signatures from BH seeding have been lost by redshift z ∼ 5-6. Finally, we compute the BLAGN UV luminosity function and find 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.

Abstract Copyright: © 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

Journal keyword(s): Supermassive black holes - Quasars - Active galactic nuclei - Broad band photometry - High-redshift galaxy clusters - High-redshift galaxies - Astrophysical black holes - Black holes

Simbad objects: 66

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Number of rows : 66
N Identifier Otype ICRS (J2000)
RA
ICRS (J2000)
DEC
Mag U Mag B Mag V Mag R Mag I Sp type #ref
1850 - 2026
#notes
1 RUBIES-UDS-174752 AGN 02 16 49.394 -05 06 01.80           ~ 1 0
2 RUBIES-UDS-182791 AGN 02 16 51.315 -05 05 13.38           ~ 2 0
3 RUBIES-UDS-31747 AGN 02 16 53.702 -05 15 36.88           ~ 2 0
4 RUBIES-UDS-63139 AGN 02 16 55.404 -05 12 09.39           ~ 1 0
5 RUBIES-UDS-19484 AGN 02 16 55.782 -05 16 50.35           ~ 1 0
6 RUBIES-UDS-18302 AGN 02 16 56.0724 -05 17 01.651           ~ 2 0
7 CANDELS UDS F160W J021657.21-051220.6 AGN 02 16 57.2131 -05 12 20.631           ~ 6 0
8 RUBIES-UDS-44043 AGN 02 16 58.036 -05 14 21.97           ~ 2 0
9 RUBIES-UDS-970351 AGN 02 17 02.856 -05 06 18.74           ~ 1 0
10 CANDELS UDS F160W J021703.49-051357.1 AGN 02 17 03.4989 -05 13 57.198           ~ 4 0
11 RUBIES-UDS-119957 AGN 02 17 04.538 -05 10 36.20           ~ 1 0
12 RUBIES-UDS-48507 AGN 02 17 08.299 -05 13 50.53           ~ 1 0
13 RUBIES-UDS-46885 AGN 02 17 10.000 -05 14 01.64           ~ 1 0
14 CANDELS UDS F160W J021710.44-051404.4 AGN 02 17 10.4434 -05 14 04.497   26.440 25.469 24.788   ~ 4 0
15 RUBIES-UDS-139709 AGN 02 17 11.040 -05 08 59.62           ~ 1 0
16 CANDELS UDS F160W J021711.11-051607.1 AGN 02 17 11.1218 -05 16 07.171   28.577 27.116 26.226   ~ 4 0
17 CANDELS UDS F160W J021715.93-050840.7 AGN 02 17 15.9302 -05 08 40.728     28.397 27.410   ~ 3 0
18 CANDELS UDS F160W J021716.08-050739.2 AGN 02 17 16.0877 -05 07 39.184           ~ 5 0
19 RUBIES-UDS-146995 AGN 02 17 19.4330 -05 08 23.884           ~ 2 0
20 CANDELS UDS F160W J021719.58-051538.0 AGN 02 17 19.5886 -05 15 37.978     27.098 26.162   ~ 4 0
21 RUBIES-UDS-147411 AGN 02 17 26.572 -05 08 20.69           ~ 1 0
22 RUBIES-UDS-8895 AGN 02 17 27.130 -05 18 21.99           ~ 1 0
23 RUBIES-UDS-16053 AGN 02 17 28.105 -05 17 36.69           ~ 1 0
24 RUBIES-UDS-172350 AGN 02 17 28.548 -05 06 14.19           ~ 1 0
25 RUBIES-UDS-807469 AGN 02 17 30.273 -05 18 37.32           ~ 1 0
26 RUBIES-UDS-10036 AGN 02 17 31.601 -05 18 13.47           ~ 1 0
27 RUBIES-UDS-19521 AGN 02 17 32.081 -05 17 15.84           ~ 1 0
28 RUBIES-UDS-22304 AGN 02 17 35.801 -05 16 58.83           ~ 1 0
29 RUBIES-UDS-5496 AGN 02 17 37.3956 -05 18 46.584           ~ 3 0
30 CANDELS UDS F160W J021738.59-050746.9 AGN 02 17 38.5867 -05 07 46.902   26.718 25.814 25.505   ~ 15 0
31 RUBIES-UDS-11721 AGN 02 17 38.6398 -05 18 02.876           ~ 2 0
32 RUBIES-UDS-150323 AGN 02 17 40.277 -05 08 05.43           ~ 2 0
33 RUBIES-UDS-29813 AGN 02 17 48.805 -05 16 14.58           ~ 2 0
34 RUBIES-UDS-21944 AGN 02 17 52.612 -05 17 00.83           ~ 1 0
35 CANDELS UDS F160W J021758.33-050751.5 AGN 02 17 58.3383 -05 07 51.594   25.223 24.406 23.628   ~ 2 0
36 NAME Extended Groth Strip reg 14 19 +52.8           ~ 1023 0
37 CANDELS EGS F160W J141910.9+524719.7 AGN 14 19 10.909 +52 47 19.72           ~ 8 0
38 CANDELS EGS F160W J141913.4+524834.2 AGN 14 19 13.36 +52 48 34.3           ~ 4 0
39 [ADF2023] CEERS MSA 746 AGN 14 19 14.1940 +52 52 06.541           ~ 27 0
40 CANDELS EGS F160W J141917.6+524949.0 AGN 14 19 17.629 +52 49 49.04           ~ 29 0
41 RUBIES-EGS-45599 AGN 14 19 19.465 +52 49 26.85           ~ 1 0
42 CANDELS EGS F160W J141920.7+525257.7 AGN 14 19 20.687 +52 52 57.70           ~ 25 0
43 RUBIES-EGS-50812 AGN 14 19 22.917 +52 50 53.81           ~ 1 0
44 RUBIES-EGS-37032 AGN 14 19 23.853 +52 48 42.57           ~ 1 0
45 RUBIES-EGS-58237 AGN 14 19 24.136 +52 51 57.71           ~ 5 0
46 RUBIES-EGS-50522 AGN 14 19 25.435 +52 51 16.78           ~ 1 0
47 CANDELS EGS F160W J141926.6+524705.1 AGN 14 19 26.59058 +52 47 05.2853           ~ 4 0
48 CANDELS EGS F160W J141926.8+524906.4 AGN 14 19 26.809 +52 49 06.43           ~ 3 0
49 RUBIES-EGS-42232 AGN 14 19 32.830 +52 51 19.37           ~ 4 0
50 [ADF2023] CEERS MSA 672 AGN 14 19 33.5225 +52 49 58.717           ~ 12 0
51 CEERS J141934.14+525238.6 AGN 14 19 34.140 +52 52 38.66           ~ 13 0
52 RUBIES-EGS-60935 AGN 14 19 41.610 +52 55 32.13           ~ 3 0
53 RUBIES-EGS-28812 AGN 14 19 41.796 +52 50 56.58           ~ 2 0
54 CANDELS EGS F160W J141947.9+525043.6 AGN 14 19 47.87 +52 50 43.6           ~ 4 0
55 RUBIES-EGS-37124 AGN 14 19 57.834 +52 54 59.49           ~ 2 0
56 RUBIES-EGS-29489 AGN 14 20 05.286 +52 55 14.83           ~ 2 0
57 RUBIES-EGS-920 AGN 14 20 12.563 +52 53 03.36           ~ 1 0
58 CANDELS EGS F160W J142019.0+525603.3 AGN 14 20 19.029 +52 56 03.34           ~ 4 0
59 CANDELS EGS F160W J142019.5+525819.9 EmG 14 20 19.556 +52 58 19.98           ~ 19 0
60 CANDELS EGS F160W J142020.4+525814.7 AGN 14 20 20.376 +52 58 14.66           ~ 6 0
61 RUBIES-EGS-6411 AGN 14 20 26.204 +52 56 23.17           ~ 1 0
62 RUBIES-EGS-13872 AGN 14 20 31.904 +52 58 14.54           ~ 1 0
63 RUBIES-EGS-926125 AGN 14 20 32.899 +52 59 18.79           ~ 3 0
64 CANDELS EGS F160W J142034.9+525802.2 EmG 14 20 34.88 +52 58 02.3           ~ 15 0
65 CANDELS EGS F160W J142042.8+530333.7 EmG 14 20 42.771 +53 03 33.67           ~ 14 0
66 CANDELS EGS F160W J142057.8+530209.8 AGN 14 20 57.756 +53 02 09.75           ~ 14 0

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