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1. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: The Black Hole Mass–Stellar Mass Relations at 0.2 ≲ z ≲ 0.8

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acddda  

   Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu; Shen, Yue; Ho, Luis C; Brandt, W N; Grier, Catherine J; Hall, Patrick B; Homayouni, Y; Koekemoer, Anton M; Schneider, Donald P; Trump, Jonathan R (September 2023, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We measure the correlation between black hole massM_BHand host stellar massM_*for a sample of 38 broad-line quasars at 0.2 ≲z≲ 0.8 (median redshiftz_med= 0.5). The black hole masses are derived from a dedicated reverberation mapping program for distant quasars, and the stellar masses are derived from two-band optical+IR Hubble Space Telescope imaging. Most of these quasars are well centered within ≲1 kpc from the host galaxy centroid, with only a few cases in merging/disturbed systems showing larger spatial offsets. Our sample spans two orders of magnitude in stellar mass (∼10⁹–10¹¹M_⊙) and black hole mass (∼10⁷–10⁹M_⊙) and reveals a significant correlation between the two quantities. We find a best-fit intrinsic (i.e., selection effects corrected)M_BH–M_*,hostrelation of $\log \left(M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\odot }\right)={7.01}_{-0.33}^{+0.23}+{1.74}_{-0.64}^{+0.64}\log \left(M_{*,\mathrm{host}}/{10}^{10}{M}_{\odot }\right)$ , with an intrinsic scatter of ${0.47}_{-0.17}^{+0.24}$ dex. Decomposing our quasar hosts into bulges and disks, there is a similarM_BH–M_*,bulgerelation with slightly larger scatter, likely caused by systematic uncertainties in the bulge–disk decomposition. TheM_BH–M_*,hostrelation atz_med= 0.5 is similar to that in local quiescent galaxies, with negligible evolution over the redshift range probed by our sample. With direct black hole masses from reverberation mapping and the large dynamical range of the sample, selection biases do not appear to affect our conclusions significantly. Our results, along with other samples in the literature, suggest that the locally measured black hole mass–host stellar mass relation is already in place atz∼ 1. 

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2. SHELLQs–JWST Perspective on the Intrinsic Mass Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies at z > 6

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae279c  

   Silverman, John David; Li, Junyao; Ding, Xuheng; Onoue, Masafusa; Strauss, Michael A; Matsuoka, Yoshiki; Izumi, Takuma; Jahnke, Knud; Treu, Tommaso; Volonteri, Marta; et al (December 2025, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract The relation between the masses of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies encodes information on their mode of growth, especially at the earliest epochs. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened such investigations by detecting the host galaxies of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and more luminous quasars within the first billion years of the Universe (z ≳ 6). Here, we evaluate the relation between the mass of SMBHs and the total stellar mass of their host galaxies using a sample of nine quasars at 6.18 ≤z≤ 6.4 from the Subaru High-zExploration of Low-luminosity Quasars survey with NIRCam and NIRSpec observations. We find that the observed location of these quasars in the SMBH–galaxy mass plane ( $\log M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\odot }\sim 8$ –9; $\log M_{*}/M_{\odot }\sim 9.5$ –11) is consistent with a nonevolving intrinsic mass relation with dispersion ( $0.80_{-0.28}^{+0.23}$ dex) higher than the local value (∼0.3–0.4 dex) of their more massive descendants. Our analysis is based on a forward model of systematics and includes a consideration of the impact of selection effects and measurement uncertainties with an assumption on the slope of the mass relation. While degeneracies between parameters persist, the best-fit solution has a reasonable AGN fraction (2.3%) of galaxies atz ∼ 6 with an actively growing UV-unobscured black hole. In particular, models with a substantially higher normalisation inM_BHwould require an unrealistically low intrinsic dispersion (∼0.22 dex). Consequently, our results predict a large population of AGN at lower black hole masses, as are now just starting to be discovered in focused efforts with JWST. 

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3. The High-Redshift Gas-Phase Mass–Metallicity Relation in FIRE-2

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad4cee  

   Marszewski, Andrew; Sun, Guochao; Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André; Hayward, Christopher C; Feldmann, Robert (May 2024, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract The unprecedented infrared spectroscopic capabilities of JWST have provided high-quality interstellar medium metallicity measurements and enabled characterization of the gas-phase mass–metallicity relation (MZR) for galaxies atz≳ 5 for the first time. We analyze the gas-phase MZR and its evolution in a high-redshift suite of FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in simulations atz= 5–12 and for stellar massesM_*∼ 10⁶–10¹⁰M_⊙. These simulations implement a multichannel stellar feedback model and produce broadly realistic galaxy properties, including when evolved toz= 0. The simulations predict very weak redshift evolution of the MZR over the redshift range studied, with the normalization of the MZR increasing by less than 0.01 dex as redshift decreases fromz= 12 toz= 5. The median MZR in the simulations is well approximated as a constant power-law relation across this redshift range given by $\log \left(Z/Z_{\odot }\right)=0.37\log \left(M_{*}/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\right)-4.3$ . We find good agreement between our best-fit model and recent observations made by JWST at high redshift. The weak evolution of the MZR atz> 5 contrasts with the evolution atz≲ 3, where increasing normalization of the MZR with decreasing redshift is observed and predicted by most models. The FIRE-2 simulations predict increasing scatter in the gas-phase MZR with decreasing stellar mass, in qualitative agreement with some observations. 

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4. Restoration of the Tully–Fisher Relation by Statistical Rectification

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad2856  

   Fu, Hai (February 2024, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract I employ the Lucy rectification algorithm to recover the inclination-corrected distribution of local disk galaxies in the plane of absolute magnitude (M_i) and Hivelocity width (W₂₀). By considering the inclination angle as a random variable with a known probability distribution, the novel approach eliminates one major source of uncertainty in studies of the Tully–Fisher relation: inclination angle estimation from axial ratio. Leveraging the statistical strength derived from the entire sample of 28,264 Hi-selected disk galaxies atz< 0.06 from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey, I show that the restored distribution follows a sharp correlation that is approximately a power law between −16 >M_i> −22: $M_i=M_0-2.5\beta \left[\log \right(W_{20}/250\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}\left)\right]$ , withM₀= −19.77± 0.04 andβ= 4.39 ± 0.06. At the brighter end (M_i< −22), the slope of the correlation decreases toβ≈ 3.3, confirming previous results. Because the method accounts for measurement errors, the intrinsic dispersion of the correlation is directly measured: $\sigma \left(\log W_{20}\right)\approx 0.06$ dex between −17 >M_i> −23, whileσ(M_i) decreases from ∼0.8 in slow rotators to ∼0.4 in fast rotators. The statistical rectification method holds significant potential, especially in the studies of intermediate-to-high-redshift samples, where limited spatial resolution hinders precise measurements of inclination angles. 

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5. The Large-scale Environments of Low-luminosity AGNs at 3.9 < z < 6 and Implications for Their Host Dark Matter Halos from a Complete NIRCam Grism Redshift Survey

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae1eef  

   Lin, Xiaojing; Fan, Xiaohui; Sun, Fengwu; Zhang, Junyu; Egami, Eiichi; Helton, Jakob M; Wang, Feige; Zhang, Haowen; Bunker, Andrew J; Cai, Zheng; et al (January 2026, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We study the large-scale environments and clustering properties of 28 low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) atz = 3.9–6 in the GOODS-N field. Our sample, identified from the JWST NIRCam Imaging and WFSS data in Complete NIRCam Grism Redshift Survey and First Reionization Epoch Spectroscopically Complete Observations surveys with either broad Hαemission lines or V-shaped continua, are compared to 782 Hαemitters (HAEs) selected from the same data. These AGNs are located in diverse large-scale environments and do not preferentially reside in denser environments compared to HAEs. Their overdensity field,δ, averaged over (15h⁻¹cMpc)³, ranges from −0.56 to 10.56, and shows no clear correlation with broad-line luminosity, black hole (BH) masses, or the AGN fraction. It suggests that >10 cMpc structures do not significantly influence BH growth. We measure the two-point cross-correlation function of AGNs with HAEs, finding a comparable amplitude to that of the HAE autocorrelation. This indicates similar bias parameters and host dark matter halo masses for AGNs and HAEs. The correlation length of field AGNs is 4.26h⁻¹cMpc and 7.66h⁻¹cMpc at 3.9 < z < 5 and 5 < z < 6, respectively. We infer a median host dark matter halo mass of $\log (M_h/M_{\odot })\approx 11.0-11.2$ and host stellar masses of $\log \left(M_{\star }/M_{\odot }\right)\approx 8.4\text{–}8.6$ by comparing with the UniverseMachinesimulation. Our clustering analysis suggests that low-luminosity AGNs at high redshift reside in normal star-forming galaxies with overmassive BHs. They represent an intrinsically distinct population from luminous quasars and could be a common phase in galaxy evolution. 

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