A Complete Census of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies at z=6

Masafusa Onoue, Xuheng Ding, Takuma Izumi, Yoshiki Matsuoka, John David Silverman, Masayuki Akiyama, Irham Taufik Andika, Kentaro Aoki, Shunsuke Baba, Rebekka Bieri, Sarah Bosman, Anna-Christina Eilers, Seiji Fujimoto, Melanie Habouzit, Zoltan Haiman, Masatoshi Imanishi, Kohei Inayoshi, Knud Jahnke, Nobunari Kashikawa, Toshihiro KawaguchiSatoshi Kikuta, Kotaro Kohno, Chien-Hsiu Lee, Alessandro Lupi, Jianwei Lyu, Victor Marian, Tohru Nagao, Roderik Overzier, Jan-Torge Schindler, Malte Schramm, Kazuhiro Shimasaku, Michael A. Strauss, Benny Trakhtenbrot, Maxime Trebitsch, Hideki Umehata, Bram Venemans, Marianne Vestergaard, Marta Volonteri, Fabian Walter, Feige Wang, Jinyi Yang, wanqiu he

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Abstract

We propose NIRSpec Fixed-Slit + NIRCam broad-band observations of 12 of the lowest-luminosity quasars known at z=6 to obtain the first full census of the black holes and host galaxies of the earliest quasars. We will derive the well-calibrated Hbeta-based masses (M_BH) of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with NIRSpec's G395M grism, from which we characterize the distribution functions of M_BH and Eddington ratios, eliminating severe previous selection biases due to the limitation of ground-based NIR spectroscopy. We will measure their host stellar masses with NIRCam's F150W and F356W filters to calculate the SMBH-to-stellar mass ratios, from which we investigate the origin of the tight correlation between M_BH and host bulge mass observed in the present-day universe. Our sample size will allow us to stringently determine whether SMBHs have grown in parallel with their hosts (as suggested by recent ALMA observations), or if one evolves faster than the other. Our sample is the least biased of all high-z quasar samples, allowing us to derive a comprehensive picture of the SMBHs and their host galaxies within the first billion years of the universe.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJWST Proposal. Cycle 1
Pages (from-to)1967
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2021

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