Journal Article

The cosmic timeline implied by the highest redshift quasars

Melia, Fulvio

2024

Overview

The conventional picture of supermassive black-hole growth in the standard model had already been seriously challenged by the emergence of ∼ 10 9 M ⊙ quasars at z ∼ 7.5 , conflicting with the predicted formation of structure in the early Λ CDM Universe. But the most recent JWST discovery of a ∼ 10 8 M ⊙ source at z ∼ 10.1 argues even more strongly against the possibility that these black holes were created in Pop II or III supernovae, followed by Eddington-limited accretion. Attempts at resolving this anomaly have largely focused on the formation of seeds via an exotic, direct collapse of primordial gas to an initial mass ∼ 10 5 M ⊙ – a process that has never been seen anywhere in the cosmos. Our goal in this Letter is to demonstrate that the emergence of these black holes is instead fully consistent with standard astrophysics in the context of the alternative Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker cosmology known as the R h = c t universe. We show that, while the predicted evolution in the standard model is overly compressed, the creation, growth and appearance of such high- z quasars fall comfortably within the evolutionary history in this cosmology, thereby adding considerable observational support to the existing body of evidence favoring it over the standard scenario.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V,SpringerOpen
• Subject: Astronomical models / Astronomy / Astrophysics and Cosmology / Cosmology / Elementary Particles / Hadrons / Heavy Ions / Letter / Measurement Science and Instrumentation / Nuclear Energy / Nuclear Physics / Physics / Physics and Astronomy / Quantum Field Theories / Quantum Field Theory / Quasars / Red shift / String Theory / Supermassive black holes / Universe