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Finding the Seeds of Supermassive Black Holes: The Direct Collapse Black Hole Scenario

The origin of supermassive black holes (SMBHs,∼ 10^9M⊙) in the first billion years of cosmic history remains a mystery. Direct Collapse Black Holes (DCBHs,∼ 10^4M⊙) are considered one of the most promising hypotheses for the progenitor of SMBHs, as they are believed to provide a favorable starting point as massive seeds for SMBH formation. Based on the models of Pacucci et al. (2016), the DCBHs at birth are expected to exhibit an unusual steep (red) spectral energy distribution (SED) in the 1-5 micrometer range. In this study,we investigate degeneracies between DCBHs and dusty galaxies using synthetic data from the Pacucci model. Furthermore, we employ James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) photometric data obtainedfrom the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey,which has been processed and reduced by Gabriel Brammer using the Grizli pipeline. By analyzing this JWST photometric data, we aim to identify potential DCBH candidates for further spectroscopic observations. We find that the dusty galaxies over a wide range ofredshift could mimic the SED shape of DCBHs, and that obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) could potentially act as interlopers as well. The similarities in certain observational characteristics between DCBHs and dusty galaxies/AGN can obscure their distinct identities. In a localized region of the Extended Groth Strip field, we identify 12, 17, and 77 objects in three catalogues with increasing aperture sizesthat show relatively good fits with the DCBH models. However, upon further examination of their images, we do not find any candidatesthat are particularly compelling or convincing.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-515065
Date January 2023
CreatorsLi, Weihui
PublisherUppsala universitet, Institutionen för fysik och astronomi
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationFYSAST ; FYSMAS1219

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