Supermassive black holes are growing slowly by z∼5

Samuel Lai*, Christopher A. Onken, Christian Wolf, Fuyan Bian, Xiaohui Fan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We investigate the black hole mass function at z ∼5 using XQz5, our recent sample of the most luminous quasars between the redshifts 4.5 < z < 5.3. We include 72 quasars with black hole masses estimated from velocity-broadened emission-line measurements and single-epoch virial prescriptions in the footprint of a highly complete parent survey. The sample mean Eddington ratio and standard deviation is log λ ≈ -0.20 ± 0.24. The completeness-corrected mass function is modelled as a double power law, and we constrain its evolution across redshift assuming accretion-dominated mass growth.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2245-2261
Number of pages17
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume531
Issue number2
Early online date20 May 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024

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