Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: JWST observations have opened a new chapter in supermassive black hole (SMBH) studies, stimulating discussion of two puzzles: the abundance of high-z SMBHs and the fraction of dual active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We argue that the answers to these puzzles may be linked to an interpretation of the data on the nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs) discovered by NANOGrav and other pulsar timing arrays as SMBH binaries whose evolution is driven by interactions with their environments down to O (0.1 pc) separations. We show that the stellar mass-black hole mass correlations found in JWST data and in low-ɀ inactive galaxies are similar, and present a global fit to these data, excluding low-ɀ AGNs. Matching the NANOGrav and dual-AGN data requires that binary evolution due to environmental effects at separations below O( 1 kpc) be rapid on cosmological timescales. According to this interpretation, the SMBHs in low-ɀ AGNs are the tip of the iceberg of a local SMBH population in mainly inactive galaxies. This interpretation is consistent with the ‘little red dots’ observed with JWST being AGNs, and would favour the observability of GW signals from black hole binaries in LISA and decihertz GW detectors.
Source: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,732
Awards: CERN Science Consortium of Estonia, Pathways between Fundamental Physics and Phenomenology, ESA Science Consortium of Estonia, G3559729648, Physics of primordial black holes from formation to the present, G4093228243, G4473005422, G4714798725, Multi-Messenger Probes of Dark Matter, AION: A UK Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network
OpenAlex ID: W4403509625