Science with an ngVLA: Local Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Seeds

TL;DR

This paper discusses how the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) can help identify and study low-mass galaxies to understand the origins of supermassive black holes, focusing on their early formation mechanisms.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of ngVLA to develop large samples of low-mass, weakly accreting active galactic nuclei for constraining black hole seed models.

Findings

ngVLA can detect active galactic nuclei out to nearly 1 Gpc.

Large samples of low-mass black holes can inform seed formation theories.

Observations will improve understanding of early black hole growth.

Abstract

Determining the mechanisms that formed and grew the first supermassive black holes is one of top priorities in extragalactic astrophysics. Observational clues can be inferred from the demographics of massive black holes (in the ten thousand through million Solar mass range) in nearby low-mass galaxies. This chapter of the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) Science Book describes how an ngVLA can play a prominent role in developing large samples of weakly accreting active galactic nuclei in low-mass galaxies (out to nearly 1 Gpc), which will help constrain the types of objects that originally seeded the growth of supermassive black holes.