Extreme properties of a compact and massive accreting black hole host in the first 500 Myr

Little red dots (LRDs) are a high redshift galaxy population. Despite their high number densities, their nature is still uncertain. Here we present CANUCS-LRD-z8.6, a spectroscopically confirmed little red dot at a spectroscopic redshift of zspec = 8.6319, hosting an active galactic nucleus. Its spectrum exhibits broad Hβλ4863 Å emission, high-ionization lines (C iv, N iv]), high electron temperature, which are indicative of active galactic nucleus activity, and low metallicity (Z < 0.1-0.2Z⊙). The inferred black hole mass, M BH = 1 . 0 - 0.4 + 0.6 × 1 0 8 M ⊙ , poses strong constraints on current black hole formation models and simulations. Additionally, its black hole is over-massive relative to its host, deviating from local MBH - M* relations, suggesting an early, rapid black hole growth preceding that of its galaxy. CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 may represent an evolutionary link between early massive black holes and the luminous quasars observed at z = 6.