A Candidate Supermassive Black Hole in a Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy at Z 10

While supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are widely observed in the nearby and distant Universe, their origin remains debated with two viable formation scenarios with light and heavy seeds. In the light seeding model, the seed of the first SMBHs form from the collapse of massive stars with masses of 10-100 M-circle dot, while the heavy seeding model posits the formation of 10(4-5)M(circle dot) seeds from direct collapse. The detection of SMBHs at redshifts z greater than or similar to 10, edging closer to their formation epoch, provides critical observational discrimination between these scenarios. Here, we focus on the JWST-detected galaxy, GHZ 9, at z approximate to 10 that is lensed by the foreground cluster, A2744. Based on 2.1 Ms deep Chandra observations, we detect a candidate X-ray active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is spatially coincident with the high-redshift galaxy, GHZ 9. The SMBH candidate is inferred to have a bolometric luminosity of (1.0(+0.5)(-0.4))x10(46) ergs(-1), which corresponds to a black hole (BH) mass of (8.0(+3.7)(-3.2))x10(7) M-circle dot assuming Eddington-limited accretion. This extreme mass at such an early cosmic epoch suggests the heavy seed origin for this BH candidate. Based on the Chandra and JWST discoveries of extremely high-redshift quasars, we have constructed the first simple AGN luminosity function extending to z approximate to 10. Comparison of this luminosity function with theoretical models indicates an overabundant z approximate to 10 SMBH population, consistent with a higher-than-expected seed formation efficiency.