Direct pathway to the early supermassive Black Holes: A red super-Eddington quasar in a massive starburst host at z = 7.2
Fei Q, Fujimoto S, Brammer G, Li R, Ho LC, Bromm V, Álvarez-Márquez J, Asada Y, Barro G, Colina L, Dayal P, Finkelstein SL, Fynbo JPU, Ginolfi M, Inayoshi K, Kokorev V, Leung GCK, Matthee JJ, Meyer RA, Naidu RP, Onoue M, Pérez-González PG, Steinhardt CL, Valentino F, Walter F, Xiao M, Zhang H. 2026. Direct pathway to the early supermassive Black Holes: A red super-Eddington quasar in a massive starburst host at z = 7.2. The Astrophysical Journal. 1010(1), 86.
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Author
Fei, Qinyue;
Fujimoto, Seiji;
Brammer, Gabriel;
Li, Ruancun;
Ho, Luis C.;
Bromm, Volker;
Álvarez-Márquez, Javier;
Asada, Yoshihisa;
Barro, Guillermo;
Colina, Luis;
Dayal, Pratika;
Finkelstein, Steven L.
All
All
Department
Abstract
We present a panchromatic optical-millimeter characterization of GNz7q, a recently identified X-ray-weak,
rapidly growing red quasar embedded within a dusty starburst galaxy at z = 7.1899, using the full suite of JWST/
NIRCam, NIRSpec, Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and archival NOEMA observations. Our deep NIRSpec/
G395M spectroscopy reveals unambiguous broad Balmer emission (FWHM = 2221 ± 20 km s
−1
), confirming a
super-Eddington accreting black hole (BH) (λEdd = 2.7 ± 0.4) with a mass of
log(MBH/M ) = 7.55 ± 0.34,
using accretion-rate-corrected BH mass estimators. After subtracting the point source, we robustly detect stellar
emission from the host galaxy across multiple NIRCam and MIRI filters. Our joint morphological-spectral
analysis yields a stellar mass of = ± * log(M /M ) 10.5 0.4
and an intense star formation rate of
SFR = 330 ± 97 M⊙ yr−1
, confirming the host as a massive, dusty starburst galaxy. We find that GNz7q lies
on the local MBH–M* relation (MBH/M* ≃ 0.001) and is well positioned to evolve into the locus of massive Sloan
Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars with
log(MBH/M ) 9
and M* ≈ 1011 M⊙ at z ∼ 6, owing to its remarkably
rapid growth in both the BH and its host galaxy. This stands in stark contrast to many recently reported JWST
active galactic nucleus populations at similar redshifts, including the little red dots, whose weak or undetected star
formation makes it difficult for them to grow into the massive galaxies hosting SDSS-like quasars. These results
suggest that GNz7q marks a rare, pivotal phase of early BH–galaxy coevolution, plausibly providing a crucial
direct pathway to the supermassive BH systems within the first billion years of the Universe.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2026-10-10
Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to Jinyi Yang and Feige Wang for their insightful discussions about the broad-line fitting. We are grateful to Zhiwei Pan and Yuming Fu for their discussions about the BH mass estimator.
K.I. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12573015, W2532003), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (IS25003), and the China Manned Space Program (CMS-CSST-2025-A09). LCH was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (12233001) and the China Manned Space Program (CMS-CSST-2025-A09). P.G.P.-G. acknowledges support from grant PID2022-139567NB-I00 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa. J.A.-M. acknowledges support by grants PID2024-158856NA-I00 & PIB2021-127718NB-I00 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/State Agency of Research MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe.”
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/q19z-a348for the GNz7q observations and DOI: 10.17909/0akt-xx69for the MIRI images from the MEOW survey. These observations are associated with programs # 4762 and # 5407.
Volume
1010
Issue
1
Article Number
86
ISSN
eISSN
IST-REx-ID
Cite this
Fei Q, Fujimoto S, Brammer G, et al. Direct pathway to the early supermassive Black Holes: A red super-Eddington quasar in a massive starburst host at z = 7.2. The Astrophysical Journal. 2026;1010(1). doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aea07b
Fei, Q., Fujimoto, S., Brammer, G., Li, R., Ho, L. C., Bromm, V., … Zhang, H. (2026). Direct pathway to the early supermassive Black Holes: A red super-Eddington quasar in a massive starburst host at z = 7.2. The Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aea07b
Fei, Qinyue, Seiji Fujimoto, Gabriel Brammer, Ruancun Li, Luis C. Ho, Volker Bromm, Javier Álvarez-Márquez, et al. “Direct Pathway to the Early Supermassive Black Holes: A Red Super-Eddington Quasar in a Massive Starburst Host at z = 7.2.” The Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing, 2026. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aea07b.
Q. Fei et al., “Direct pathway to the early supermassive Black Holes: A red super-Eddington quasar in a massive starburst host at z = 7.2,” The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 1010, no. 1. IOP Publishing, 2026.
Fei Q, Fujimoto S, Brammer G, Li R, Ho LC, Bromm V, Álvarez-Márquez J, Asada Y, Barro G, Colina L, Dayal P, Finkelstein SL, Fynbo JPU, Ginolfi M, Inayoshi K, Kokorev V, Leung GCK, Matthee JJ, Meyer RA, Naidu RP, Onoue M, Pérez-González PG, Steinhardt CL, Valentino F, Walter F, Xiao M, Zhang H. 2026. Direct pathway to the early supermassive Black Holes: A red super-Eddington quasar in a massive starburst host at z = 7.2. The Astrophysical Journal. 1010(1), 86.
Fei, Qinyue, et al. “Direct Pathway to the Early Supermassive Black Holes: A Red Super-Eddington Quasar in a Massive Starburst Host at z = 7.2.” The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 1010, no. 1, 86, IOP Publishing, 2026, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aea07b.
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