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arXiv · 2208.02822

An empirical approach to selecting the first growing black hole seeds with JWST/NIRCam

Andy D. Goulding·Jenny E. Greene
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Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will have the sensitivity to detect early low-mass black holes as they transition from "seeds" to supermassive black holes (BHs). Based on the JAGUAR mock catalog of galaxies, we present a clean color selection that takes advantage of the unique UV slope of accreting supermassive black holes with relatively low mass and high accretion rates. We show for a range of host stellar masses that those galaxies hosting $\sim 10^{6} M_{\odot}$ BHs radiating at >10% of their Eddington luminosity separate in color space from inactive systems. Here we propose a set of 3-band, 2-color selection boxes (with 90% completeness; 90% purity; balanced purity/completeness) with JWST/NIRCam to identify the most promising growing BH candidates at $z \sim 7-10$.

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Andy D. Goulding, Jenny E. Greene. 2022-08-04. An empirical approach to selecting the first growing black hole seeds with JWST/NIRCam. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213%2Fac9614

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