Chasing the light: Shadowing, collimation, and the super-Eddington growth of infant black holes in JWST broad-line AGNs

Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered a substantial population of high-redshift broad-line active galactic nuclei (BLAGNs) characterized by moderate luminosities, weak X-ray emissions, and faint high-ionization lines. We propose that a subset of these BLAGNs, the so-called “little blue dots” (LBDs) are accreting at super-Eddington rates and use geometrically thick, non-advective disk models to investigate photon scattering and shadowing within the polar funnel. Our models predict extremely blue optical-UV continuum slopes and highly collimated radiation fields where isotropic-equivalent luminosities exceed the Eddington limit in the polar direction, while shadowing suppresses…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: PHY-2309135, 2309135
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: 80NSSC21K027
• DD
  Dipartimenti di Eccellenza

  Award: 2023-2027
• NS
  Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
• KI
  Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

  Awards: PHY-2309135, 2309135