Radio Power from a Direct-collapse Black Hole in CR7

The leading contenders for the seeds of the first quasars are direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) formed during catastrophic baryon collapse in atomically cooled halos at z ∼ 20. The discovery of the Lyα emitter CR7 at z = 6.6 was initially held to be the first detection of a DCBH, although this interpretation has since been challenged on the grounds of Spitzer IRAC and Very Large Telescope X-Shooter data. Here we determine if radio flux from a DCBH in CR7 could be detected and discriminated from competing sources of radio emission in the halo such as young supernovae and H ii regions. We find that a DCBH would emit a flux of 10–200 nJy at 1.0 GHz, far greater than the sub-nJy signal expected for young supernovae but on par with continuum emission from star-forming regions. However, radio emission from a DCBH in CR7 could be distinguished from free–free emission from H ii regions by its spectral evolution with frequency and could be detected by the Square Kilometre Array in the coming decade.