Glimmers in the Cosmic Dawn. II. A Variability Census of Supermassive Black Holes across the Universe * * This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5–26555. These observations are associated with programs 1563, 12498, and 17073

Journal article

Understanding the origin and evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) stands as one of the most important challenges in astrophysics and cosmology, with little current theoretical consensus. Improved observational constraints on the cosmological evolution of SMBH demographics are needed. Here we report results of a search via photometric variability for SMBHs appearing as active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the cosmological volume defined by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This work includes particular focus on a new observation carried out in 2023 with the Hubble Space Telescope using the WFC3/IR/F140W, which is compared directly to equivalent data taken 11 yr earlier in 2012. Two earlier pairs of observations from 2009 to 2012 with WFC3/IR/F105W and WFC3/IR/F160W are also analyzed. We identify 521, 188, and 109 AGN candidates as nuclear sources that exhibit photometric variability at a level of 2σ, 2.5σ, and 3σ, respectively, in at least one filter. This sample includes 13, 3, and 2 AGN candidates at redshifts z > 6, when the Universe was ≲900 Myr old. After variability and luminosity function (down to MUV = −17 mag) completeness corrections, we estimate the comoving number density of SMBHs, nSMBH(z). At z ≳ 6, nSMBH ≳ 6 × 10−3 cMpc−3. At low z our observations are sensitive to AGN fainter than MUV = −17 mag, and we estimate nSMBH ≳ 10−2 cMpc−3. We discuss how these results place strong constraints on a variety of SMBH seeding theories.

Authors: Cammelli, V; Tan, JC; Young, AR; Hayes, MJ; Singh, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Astronomical Society
• Journal: The Astrophysical Journal
• Volume: 991
• Issue: 2
• Article number: 141
• Publication date: 2025-09-23
• Acceptance date: 2025-07-29
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adf63b
• EISSN: 1538-4357
• ISSN: 0004637X and 0004-637X
• Language: English
• Keywords: High-redshift galaxies; Active galactic nuclei; Supermassive black holes; Galaxies