TY - JOUR
T1 - A mature quasar at cosmic dawn revealed by JWST rest-frame infrared spectroscopy
AU - Bosman, Sarah E.I.
AU - Álvarez-Márquez, Javier
AU - Colina, Luis
AU - Walter, Fabian
AU - Alonso-Herrero, Almudena
AU - Ward, Martin J.
AU - Östlin, Göran
AU - Greve, Thomas R.
AU - Wright, Gillian
AU - Bik, Arjan
AU - Boogaard, Leindert
AU - Caputi, Karina
AU - Costantin, Luca
AU - Eckart, Andreas
AU - García-Marín, Macarena
AU - Gillman, Steven
AU - Hjorth, Jens
AU - Iani, Edoardo
AU - Ilbert, Olivier
AU - Jermann, Iris
AU - Labiano, Alvaro
AU - Langeroodi, Danial
AU - Peißker, Florian
AU - Rinaldi, Pierluigi
AU - Topinka, Martin
AU - van der Werf, Paul
AU - Güdel, Manuel
AU - Henning, Thomas
AU - Lagage, Pierre Olivier
AU - Ray, Tom P.
AU - van Dishoeck, Ewine F.
AU - Vandenbussche, Bart
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024.
PY - 2024/8
Y1 - 2024/8
N2 - The rapid assembly of the first supermassive black holes is an enduring mystery. Until now, it was not known whether quasar ‘feeding’ structures (the ‘hot torus’) could assemble as fast as the smaller-scale quasar structures. We present JWST/MRS (rest-frame infrared) spectroscopic observations of the quasar J1120+0641 at z = 7.0848 (well within the epoch of reionization). The hot torus dust was clearly detected at λrest ≃ 1.3 μm, with a black-body temperature of Tdust=1,413.5−7.4+5.7 K, slightly elevated compared to similarly luminous quasars at lower redshifts. Importantly, the supermassive black hole mass of J1120+0641 based on the Hα line (accessible only with JWST), MBH = 1.52 ± 0.17 × 109 M⊙, is in good agreement with previous ground-based rest-frame ultraviolet Mg ii measurements. Comparing the ratios of the Hα, Paα and Paβ emission lines to predictions from a simple one-phase Cloudy model, we find that they are consistent with originating from a common broad-line region with physical parameters that are consistent with lower-redshift quasars. Together, this implies that J1120+0641’s accretion structures must have assembled very quickly, as they appear fully ‘mature’ less than 760 Myr after the Big Bang.
AB - The rapid assembly of the first supermassive black holes is an enduring mystery. Until now, it was not known whether quasar ‘feeding’ structures (the ‘hot torus’) could assemble as fast as the smaller-scale quasar structures. We present JWST/MRS (rest-frame infrared) spectroscopic observations of the quasar J1120+0641 at z = 7.0848 (well within the epoch of reionization). The hot torus dust was clearly detected at λrest ≃ 1.3 μm, with a black-body temperature of Tdust=1,413.5−7.4+5.7 K, slightly elevated compared to similarly luminous quasars at lower redshifts. Importantly, the supermassive black hole mass of J1120+0641 based on the Hα line (accessible only with JWST), MBH = 1.52 ± 0.17 × 109 M⊙, is in good agreement with previous ground-based rest-frame ultraviolet Mg ii measurements. Comparing the ratios of the Hα, Paα and Paβ emission lines to predictions from a simple one-phase Cloudy model, we find that they are consistent with originating from a common broad-line region with physical parameters that are consistent with lower-redshift quasars. Together, this implies that J1120+0641’s accretion structures must have assembled very quickly, as they appear fully ‘mature’ less than 760 Myr after the Big Bang.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85196053342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41550-024-02273-0
DO - 10.1038/s41550-024-02273-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85196053342
SN - 2397-3366
VL - 8
SP - 1054
EP - 1065
JO - Nature Astronomy
JF - Nature Astronomy
ER -