[{"citation":{"mla":"Fei, Qinyue, et al. “A GLIMPSE of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in the Epoch of Reionization: Witnessing the Descendants of Direct Collapse?” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>, vol. 1003, no. 2, 244, IOP Publishing, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248\">10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248</a>.","chicago":"Fei, Qinyue, Seiji Fujimoto, Rohan P. Naidu, John Chisholm, Hakim Atek, Gabriel Brammer, Yoshihisa Asada, et al. “A GLIMPSE of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in the Epoch of Reionization: Witnessing the Descendants of Direct Collapse?” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. IOP Publishing, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248\">https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248</a>.","ista":"Fei Q, Fujimoto S, Naidu RP, Chisholm J, Atek H, Brammer G, Asada Y, Berg DA, Bromm V, Furtak LJ, Greene JE, Hsiao TYY, Jeon J, Kokorev V, Matthee JJ, Natarajan P, Pan R, Richard J, Saldana-Lopez A, Schaerer D, Volonteri M, Zitrin A. 2026. A GLIMPSE of intermediate mass Black Holes in the epoch of reionization: Witnessing the descendants of direct collapse? The Astrophysical Journal. 1003(2), 244.","ama":"Fei Q, Fujimoto S, Naidu RP, et al. A GLIMPSE of intermediate mass Black Holes in the epoch of reionization: Witnessing the descendants of direct collapse? <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. 2026;1003(2). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248\">10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248</a>","ieee":"Q. Fei <i>et al.</i>, “A GLIMPSE of intermediate mass Black Holes in the epoch of reionization: Witnessing the descendants of direct collapse?,” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>, vol. 1003, no. 2. IOP Publishing, 2026.","apa":"Fei, Q., Fujimoto, S., Naidu, R. P., Chisholm, J., Atek, H., Brammer, G., … Zitrin, A. (2026). A GLIMPSE of intermediate mass Black Holes in the epoch of reionization: Witnessing the descendants of direct collapse? <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. IOP Publishing. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248\">https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248</a>","short":"Q. Fei, S. Fujimoto, R.P. Naidu, J. Chisholm, H. Atek, G. Brammer, Y. Asada, D.A. Berg, V. Bromm, L.J. Furtak, J.E. Greene, T.Y.Y. Hsiao, J. Jeon, V. Kokorev, J.J. Matthee, P. Natarajan, R. Pan, J. Richard, A. Saldana-Lopez, D. Schaerer, M. Volonteri, A. Zitrin, The Astrophysical Journal 1003 (2026)."},"quality_controlled":"1","publication_identifier":{"issn":["0004-637X"],"eissn":["1538-4357"]},"intvolume":"      1003","researchdata_availability":"yes","das_tickbox":"0","article_number":"244","oa_version":"Published Version","dataavailabilitystatement":"10.17909/4byn-fe55 and 10.17909/v2y7-j922 used with Software: LMFIT (M. Newville et al. 2014) msafit (A. de Graaff et al. 2024). - Text extracted from Acknowledgements, no separate DAS","has_accepted_license":"1","publication":"The Astrophysical Journal","title":"A GLIMPSE of intermediate mass Black Holes in the epoch of reionization: Witnessing the descendants of direct collapse?","arxiv":1,"department":[{"_id":"JoMa"}],"abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"JWST has revealed an abundance of supermassive black holes (BHs) in the early Universe, and yet the lowest mass seed BHs that gave rise to these populations remain elusive. Here, we present a systematic search for broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in some of the faintest high-z galaxies surveyed yet by combining ultra-deep JWST/NIRSpec G395M spectroscopy with the strong lensing aid in AS1063. By employing the profile of the [O iii]λ5007 emission lines as a template for narrow-line components and carefully cross-validating with mock observations, we identify a sample of 10 broad-line AGNs at 4.5 < z < 7.0 (eight secure, two tentative). The inferred BH masses from the broad Hα line explore the intermediate BH mass regime down to ∼105.5 M⊙. The stellar mass (M*) is estimated with a galaxy+AGN composite model, and we find the BH to stellar mass ratio spans down to MBH/M* ≲ 0.1%, unveiling populations on the empirical MBH–M* relation observed in the local Universe. We also derive the BH mass function and investigate its low-mass end at this epoch. While we confirm the agreement of our results with previous studies at MBH ≳ 106.5M⊙, we find the mass range of ∼105.5 M⊙ features an enhanced abundance with respect to the extrapolated best-fit Schechter function. Comparison with theoretical models suggests that a possible origin for this enhanced abundance is the direct-collapse BH formation, supporting the scenario that the direct collapse of massive gas clouds is a significant pathway for the earliest supermassive BHs."}],"PlanS_conform":"1","month":"06","date_published":"2026-06-01T00:00:00Z","tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)"},"issue":"2","_id":"21999","article_type":"original","publication_status":"published","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"date_created":"2026-06-14T22:01:43Z","file_date_updated":"2026-06-22T08:03:55Z","external_id":{"arxiv":["2509.20452"]},"status":"public","year":"2026","oa":1,"scopus_import":"1","doi":"10.3847/1538-4357/ae6248","type":"journal_article","acknowledgement":"We thank the anonymous referee for insightful comments, which significantly improved the manuscript. We acknowledge Kohei Inayoshi for helpful discussions. This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. The specific observations analyzed can be accessed via DOI: 10.17909/4byn-fe55 and 10.17909/v2y7-j922. These observations are associated with programs #3293 and #9223. S.F. and Q.F. acknowledge support from the Dunlap Institute, which is funded through an endowment established by the David Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. A.S.L. acknowledges support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. A.Z. acknowledges support by grant No. 2020750 from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and grant No. 2109066 from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF); and by the Israel Science Foundation grant No. 864/23.","publisher":"IOP Publishing","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","OA_type":"gold","author":[{"full_name":"Fei, Qinyue","first_name":"Qinyue","last_name":"Fei"},{"last_name":"Fujimoto","first_name":"Seiji","full_name":"Fujimoto, Seiji"},{"full_name":"Naidu, Rohan P.","last_name":"Naidu","first_name":"Rohan P."},{"last_name":"Chisholm","first_name":"John","full_name":"Chisholm, John"},{"last_name":"Atek","first_name":"Hakim","full_name":"Atek, Hakim"},{"full_name":"Brammer, Gabriel","first_name":"Gabriel","last_name":"Brammer"},{"last_name":"Asada","first_name":"Yoshihisa","full_name":"Asada, Yoshihisa"},{"full_name":"Berg, Danielle A.","last_name":"Berg","first_name":"Danielle A."},{"full_name":"Bromm, Volker","last_name":"Bromm","first_name":"Volker"},{"first_name":"Lukas J.","last_name":"Furtak","full_name":"Furtak, Lukas J."},{"first_name":"Jenny E.","last_name":"Greene","full_name":"Greene, Jenny E."},{"full_name":"Hsiao, Tiger Yu Yang","first_name":"Tiger Yu Yang","last_name":"Hsiao"},{"first_name":"Junehyoung","last_name":"Jeon","full_name":"Jeon, Junehyoung"},{"last_name":"Kokorev","first_name":"Vasily","full_name":"Kokorev, Vasily"},{"full_name":"Matthee, Jorryt J","last_name":"Matthee","first_name":"Jorryt J","orcid":"0000-0003-2871-127X","id":"7439a258-f3c0-11ec-9501-9df22fe06720"},{"last_name":"Natarajan","first_name":"Priyamvada","full_name":"Natarajan, Priyamvada"},{"first_name":"Richard","last_name":"Pan","full_name":"Pan, Richard"},{"full_name":"Richard, Johan","last_name":"Richard","first_name":"Johan"},{"full_name":"Saldana-Lopez, Alberto","last_name":"Saldana-Lopez","first_name":"Alberto"},{"first_name":"Daniel","last_name":"Schaerer","full_name":"Schaerer, Daniel"},{"first_name":"Marta","last_name":"Volonteri","full_name":"Volonteri, Marta"},{"full_name":"Zitrin, Adi","first_name":"Adi","last_name":"Zitrin"}],"day":"01","ddc":["520"],"date_updated":"2026-06-22T11:34:52Z","OA_place":"publisher","supplementarymaterial":"yes","article_processing_charge":"Yes","file":[{"checksum":"b04247996b8dcd0eb5387581706d1106","access_level":"open_access","date_updated":"2026-06-22T08:03:55Z","date_created":"2026-06-22T08:03:55Z","content_type":"application/pdf","creator":"dernst","file_name":"2026_AstrophysicalJour_Fei.pdf","success":1,"file_size":19681834,"relation":"main_file","file_id":"22112"}],"volume":1003,"DOAJ_listed":"1"}]