TY - JOUR
T1 - The Age of Discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope
T2 - Excavating the Spectral Signatures of the First Massive Black Holes
AU - Inayoshi, Kohei
AU - Onoue, Masafusa
AU - Sugahara, Yuma
AU - Inoue, Akio K.
AU - Ho, Luis C.
N1 - Funding Information:
We greatly thank Xuheng Ding, Takuya Hashimoto, Tohru Nagao, and John Silverman for constructive discussions. We also thank Ken Mawatari for sharing the galaxy SED model templates. We acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12073003, 12003003, 11721303, 11991052, 11950410493, and 1215041030), and the China Manned Space Project Nos. CMS-CSST-2021-A04 and CMS-CSST-2021-A06. Y.S. and A.K.I. acknowledge support from NAOJ ALMA Scientific Research Grant Code 2020-16B. The numerical simulations were performed with the Cray XC50 at the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CfCA) of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and with the High-performance Computing Platform of Peking University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will open a new window into the most distant universe and unveil the early growth of supermassive black holes (BHs) in the first galaxies. In preparation for deep JWST imaging surveys, it is crucial to understand the color selection of high-redshift accreting seed BHs. We model the spectral energy distribution of super-Eddington accreting BHs with millions of solar masses in metal-poor galaxies at z ≳ 8, applying postprocess line transfer calculations to radiation hydrodynamical simulation results. Exposures of 10 ks with the NIRCam and MIRI broadband filters are sufficient to detect the radiation flux from the seed BHs with bolometric luminosities of L bol ≃ 1045 erg s-1. While the continuum colors are similar to those of typical low-z quasars, strong Hα line emission with a rest-frame equivalent width EWrest ≃ 1300 Å is so prominent that the line flux affects the broadband colors significantly. The unique colors, for instance, F356W - F560W 3 1 at 7 < z < 8 and F444W - F770W 3 1 at 9 < z < 12, provide robust criteria for photometric selection of rapidly growing seed BHs. Moreover, NIRSpec observations of low-ionization emission lines can test whether the BH is fed via a dense accretion disk at super-Eddington rates.
AB - The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will open a new window into the most distant universe and unveil the early growth of supermassive black holes (BHs) in the first galaxies. In preparation for deep JWST imaging surveys, it is crucial to understand the color selection of high-redshift accreting seed BHs. We model the spectral energy distribution of super-Eddington accreting BHs with millions of solar masses in metal-poor galaxies at z ≳ 8, applying postprocess line transfer calculations to radiation hydrodynamical simulation results. Exposures of 10 ks with the NIRCam and MIRI broadband filters are sufficient to detect the radiation flux from the seed BHs with bolometric luminosities of L bol ≃ 1045 erg s-1. While the continuum colors are similar to those of typical low-z quasars, strong Hα line emission with a rest-frame equivalent width EWrest ≃ 1300 Å is so prominent that the line flux affects the broadband colors significantly. The unique colors, for instance, F356W - F560W 3 1 at 7 < z < 8 and F444W - F770W 3 1 at 9 < z < 12, provide robust criteria for photometric selection of rapidly growing seed BHs. Moreover, NIRSpec observations of low-ionization emission lines can test whether the BH is fed via a dense accretion disk at super-Eddington rates.
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U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/ac6f01
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/ac6f01
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131405235
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 931
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 2
M1 - L25
ER -