Work

Extreme Values of Black-hole-to-stellar-mass Ratio for High-redshift Galaxies

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: With recent data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it is possible to calculate the mass of the supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies and the stellar mass of the host galaxies at redshift z ≳ 5. In this work, we apply extreme-value statistics to calculate the distributions of extreme black-hole and stellar masses for galaxies in the redshift range 3 ≲ z ≲ 8. We show that under certain assumptions about the stellar and black-hole mass functions, a high ratio of M BH / M * ∼ 0.3−0.5 can be obtained without invoking additional black hole growth physics. Nevertheless, surveying a range of extreme-value methodologies, we find predictions of the extreme ratio M BH / M * to still be in slight tension with the high values observed by JWST.

Source: The Astrophysical Journal

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae99c5

Authors: Cameron Heather, Teeraparb Chantavat, Siri Chongchitnan, Josesph Silk

Institutions: University of Warwick, Naresuan University, Johns Hopkins University, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris

Language: English

Topic: Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,499

Funders: University of Warwick, Naresuan University, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council