{ "abstract": "We present observational evidence of three massive, accreting black holes in the z = 5.0167 galaxy J0148-4214 from JWST/NIRSpec-IFU spectroscopy. The black holes are revealed through broad H α emission (FWHM = 430–2920 km/s) without a forbidden-line counterpart in the bright [O III ] doublet. Channel maps of the asymmetric central H α profile isolate two spatially distinct broad-line regions (BLRs), separated by 190 ± 40 pc, while a third BLR is found in the galaxy outskirts with a projected separation of 1.7 kpc. We discuss whether this emission could be due to supernovae, shocks, winds, or massive stars, but find the BLR origin most likely. Using single-epoch virial relations, we estimated black hole masses of log( M • / M ⊙ ) = 7.9 ± 0.4 (primary), 5.8 ± 0.5 (secondary), and 6.3 ± 0.5 (third off-nuclear). We argue that the two central black holes will likely rapidly merge, with a simple dynamical friction time estimate of the order of ≲700 Myr. Assuming that the third off-nuclear black hole is also in the process of sinking towards the centre, it will likely lead to a second merger, and we investigated the detection probability of such mergers with LISA. Alternatively, the third black hole may be the result of a previous central three-body interaction or a gravitational recoil, where our observations would provide evidence that such black holes may retain their accretion discs and BLRs even in the aftermath of such extreme dynamical interactions. The possible discovery of a black hole triplet at high redshifts, together with other recent results on distant black hole pairs, indicates that multiple massive black hole systems were likely common in the early Universe. Our results highlight the importance of IFU observations for the detection of massive black hole multiplets in distant galaxies, the progenitors of massive black hole mergers that may be detected with next-generation gravitational wave observatories.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik", "Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge", "Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London", "Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge", "INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma", "Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA", "Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)", "Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma", "INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisco di Arcetri", "Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building", "Department of Astronomy, University of Texas", "Scuola Normale Superiore", "Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris", "European Southern Observatory", "Department of Physics, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Technical University of Munich", "Institute of Astronomy", "Departments of Physics and Astronomy, University of California", "Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University", "Universität Heidelberg, Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik", "National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)", "Department of Physics, ETH Zürich", "Institute of Physics, Laboratory of Astrophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)", "Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz", "Como Lake Center for Astrophysiscs, DiSAT Università degli Studi dell’Insubria", "NRC Herzberg", "Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin", "Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics, Texas Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, University of Texas at Austin" ], "article_type": null, "arxiv": "2509.21575", "author_total": 44, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Hannah Übler", "orcid": "0000-0003-4891-0794" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Giovanni Mazzolari", "orcid": "0009-0005-7383-6655" }, { "affs": [ 1, 2, 3 ], "name": "R. Maiolino", "orcid": "0000-0002-4985-3819" }, { "affs": [ 1, 3 ], "name": "Francesco D’Eugenio", "orcid": "0000-0003-2388-8172" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "N. Davari", "orcid": "0000-0003-0708-0261" }, { "affs": [ 1, 3 ], "name": "Ignas Juodžbalis", "orcid": "0009-0003-7423-8660" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Michele Perna", "orcid": "0000-0002-0362-5941" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Jorryt Matthee", "orcid": "0000-0003-2871-127X" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Raffaella Schneider", "orcid": "0000-0001-9317-2888" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Rosa Valiante", "orcid": "0000-0003-3050-1765" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Santiago Arribas", "orcid": "0000-0001-7997-1640" }, { "affs": [ 8 ], "name": "E. Bertola", "orcid": "0000-0001-5487-2830" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Andrew J. Bunker", "orcid": "0000-0002-8651-9879" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "Volker Bromm", "orcid": "0000-0003-0212-2979" }, { "affs": [ 11 ], "name": "Stefano Carniani", "orcid": "0000-0002-6719-380X" }, { "affs": [ 12 ], "name": "S. Charlot", "orcid": "0000-0003-3458-2275" }, { "affs": [ 8 ], "name": "G. Cresci", "orcid": "0000-0002-5281-1417" }, { "affs": [ 13 ], "name": "Mirko Curti", "orcid": "0000-0002-2678-2560" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "R. Davies", "orcid": "0000-0003-4949-7217" }, { "affs": [ 14, 0 ], "name": "F. Eisenhauer" }, { "affs": [ 15 ], "name": "A. C. Fabian", "orcid": "0000-0002-9378-4072" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "N. M. Förster Schreiber", "orcid": "0000-0003-4264-3381" }, { "affs": [ 16, 0 ], "name": "R. Genzel", "orcid": "0000-0002-2767-9653" }, { "affs": [ 17 ], "name": "Kohei Inayoshi", "orcid": "0000-0001-9840-4959" }, { "affs": [ 1, 3 ], "name": "Lucy R. Ivey", "orcid": "0009-0002-5105-1222" }, { "affs": [ 1, 3 ], "name": "Gareth C. Jones", "orcid": "0000-0002-0267-9024" }, { "affs": [ 18 ], "name": "Boyuan Liu", "orcid": "0000-0002-4966-7450" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Dieter Lutz", "orcid": "0000-0003-0291-9582" }, { "affs": [ 19 ], "name": "Daichi Kashino", "orcid": "0000-0001-9044-1747" }, { "affs": [ 20, 21 ], "name": "Ruari Mackenzie", "orcid": "0000-0003-0417-385X" }, { "affs": [ 11 ], "name": "Eleonora Parlanti", "orcid": "0000-0002-7392-7814" }, { "affs": [ 22 ], "name": "Brant E. Robertson", "orcid": "0000-0002-4271-0364" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Bruno Rodríguez Del Pino", "orcid": "0000-0001-5171-3930" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Thomas Shimizu", "orcid": "0000-0002-2125-4670" }, { "affs": [ 15, 3 ], "name": "Debora Sijacki", "orcid": "0000-0002-3459-0438" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "E. Sturm", "orcid": "0000-0002-0018-3666" }, { "affs": [ 1, 3 ], "name": "Sandro Tacchella", "orcid": "0000-0002-8224-4505" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Linda J. Tacconi", "orcid": "0000-0002-1485-9401" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "G. Tozzi", "orcid": "0000-0003-4226-7777" }, { "affs": [ 23, 4 ], "name": "Alessandro Trinca", "orcid": "0000-0002-1899-4360" }, { "affs": [ 11 ], "name": "Giacomo Venturi", "orcid": "0000-0001-8349-3055" }, { "affs": [ 12 ], "name": "Marta Volonteri", "orcid": "0000-0002-3216-1322" }, { "affs": [ 24 ], "name": "Chris J. Willott", "orcid": "0000-0002-4201-7367" }, { "affs": [ 25, 26 ], "name": "Saiyang Zhang", "orcid": "0000-0003-1541-177X" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/999b5871fn5xc.bib", "cited_by": 11, "doi": "10.1051/0004-6361/202557419", "fulltext_url": null, "id": "999b5871fn5xc", "issns": [ "0004-6361", "1432-0746" ], "landing_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05760799v1", "language": "en", "licence": "CC-BY-4.0", "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "hal", "0.phys" ], [ "hal", "1.phys.astr" ], [ "hal", "2.phys.astr.co" ], [ "openalex", "3103|Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena" ] ], "openalex": "W7202291098", "pdf_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05760799/document", "pmcid": null, "pmid": null, "published": "2026-08-01", "publisher": "EDP Sciences", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/999b5871fn5xc.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z", "native_id": "hal-05760799", "source": "hal", "url": "https://hal.science/hal-05760799v1" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-01T13:20:06Z", "native_id": "W7202291098", "source": "openalex", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202557419" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "astronomy", "origin": "hal:2.phys.astr.co", "subfield": "cosmology" }, { "field": "physics", "origin": "hal:0.phys", "subfield": "general" } ], "title": "BlackTHUNDER: Evidence of three massive black holes in a z ∼ 5 galaxy", "title_text": "BlackTHUNDER: Evidence of three massive black holes in a z ∼ 5 galaxy", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-06T13:20:25Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/999b5871fn5xc", "venue": "Astronomy & Astrophysics - A&A", "versions": [] }