• The Two $z\sim 13$ Galaxy Candidates HD1 and HD2 Are Likely Not Lensed

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The discovery of two UV-bright galaxy candidates at $z\sim 13$, HD1 and HD2, laid the foundation for a new race to study the early Universe. Previous investigations suggested that they are either powered by a supermassive black hole or by an extreme, transient burst of star formation. Given their uncertain nature, we investigate whether these sources could be lensed by a hitherto undetected, faint foreground galaxy. We find that at the current limiting magnitude with which HD1 and HD2 were imaged, there is only a $7.39\%$ probability they are strongly lensed by spherical deflectors and that the hypothetical lensing galaxy was too faint to be detected. Meanwhile, with the limiting magnitudes of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the theoretical probability would drop precipitously to $0.058\%$ and $0.0012\%$, respectively. We further find it unlikely that the luminosities of both sources can be accounted for by lensing that produces a single, resolved image with sufficiently high magnification. Alternatively, in the unlikely event that their brightness results from lensing by an elliptical isothermal galaxy, there is a $30.9 \%$ probability that the lensing galaxy is too faint to be observable at the current limiting magnitude. Future HST (JWST) imaging will drop this probability to $0.245 \%$ ($0.0025 \%$). In summary, while deep imaging with HST and JWST is required to discard the lensing hypothesis entirely, it is unlikely that the exceptional luminosity of the two $z \sim 13$ sources can be accounted for by gravitational lensing.

  • A new approach to constrain the Hubble expansion rate at high redshifts by gravitational waves

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Detection of massive binary black hole (BBH) mergers at high redshifts is a target for LISA space mission. While the individual masses of a BBH merger are redshifted, the mass ratio of BBH mergers is independent of their redshift. Therefore, if there is an independent correlation between the mass ratio and redshift, such a relationship can be used to i) infer the redshift of the merging binaries, and together with the luminosity distance measurement ($D_L$), constrain the expansion rate of the universe at high redshifts $H(z)$, and ii) constrain models of supermassive black hole seed formation in the universe assuming a fixed cosmology. We discuss why there is an expected relation between the mass ratio of the massive BBHs with their redshift and show the clues for this relation by analyzing cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of BBH mergers. This approach opens up the possibility of directly measuring the expansion rate at redshift $z \approx 2$ with LISA for the first time. Moreover, we discover a trend between seed mass and mass ratio of massive BBHs which by itself is a major result that could be exploited to constrain the formation scenarios of supermassive BH seeds.

  • Triple and Quadruple Black Holes in the ASTRID Simulation at $z \sim 2$

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We use the ASTRID cosmological hydrodynamic simulation to investigate the properties and evolution of triple and quadruple Massive Black Hole (MBH) systems at $z = 2-3$. Only a handful of MBH tuple systems have been detected to date. In ASTRID, we find $4\%$ of the $M_{\rm BH}>10^7\,M_\odot$ are in tuples with $\Delta r_{\rm max} 10\%$ massive halos with $M_{\rm halo} > 10^{13} M_\odot$ host MBH tuples. Following the subsequent interactions between MBHs in tuples, we found that in $\sim 5\%$ of the triplets all three MBHs merge within a Gyr, and $15\%$ go through one merger. As a by-product of the complex multi-galaxy interaction of these systems, we also find that up to $\sim 5\%$ of tuples lead to runaway MBHs. In ASTRID, virtually all of the ultramassive black holes ($>10^{10} \,M_\odot $) have undergone a triple quasar phase while for BHs with $M_{\rm BH} \sim 10^9 \,M_\odot$ this fraction drops to $50\%$.