2024/11/24 by Fulvio Melia, Melia, Fulvio · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Mathematical Theories and Applications #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Relativity and Gravitational Theory
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.02706
openalex publication_date 2024/11/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The conventional picture of supermassive black-hole growth in the standard model had already been seriously challenged by the emergence of ∼ 109 M_\odot quasars at z∼ 7.5, conflicting with the predicted formation of structure in the early ΛCDM Universe. But the most recent \it JWST discovery of a ∼ 108 M_\odot 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 ∼ 105 M_\odot -- a process that has never been seen anywhere in the cosmos. Our goal in this \it 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\rm h=ct 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.