A search for high-redshift direct-collapse black hole candidates in the PEARLS north ecliptic pole field

Direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) of mass similar to 10(4)-10(5)M(circle dot) that form in HI-cooling halos in the early Universe are promising progenitors of the greater than or similar to 10(9)M(circle dot) supermassive black holes that fuel observed z greater than or similar to 7 quasars. Efficient accretion of the surrounding gas onto such DCBH seeds may render them sufficiently bright for detection with the JWST up to z approximate to 20. Additionally, the very steep and red spectral slope predicted across the approximate to 1-5 mu m wavelength range of the JWST/NIRSpec instrument during their initial growth phase should make them photometrically identifiable up to very high redshifts. In this work, we present a search for such DCBH candidates across the 34 arcmin2 in the first two spokes of the JWST cycle-1 PEARLS survey of the north ecliptic pole time-domain field covering eight NIRCam filters down to a maximum depth of similar to 29 AB mag. We identify two objects with spectral energy distributions consistent with the Pacucci et al. (2016) DCBH models. However, we also note that even with data in eight NIRCam filters, objects of this type remain degenerate with dusty galaxies and obscured active galactic nuclei over a wide range of redshifts. Follow-up spectroscopy would be required to pin down the nature of these objects. Based on our sample of DCBH candidates and assumptions on the typical duration of the DCBH steep-slope state, we set a conservative upper limit of less than or similar to 5x10(-4) comoving Mpc(-3) (cMpc(-3)) on the comoving density of host halos capable of hosting DCBHs with spectral energy distributions similar to the Pacucci et al. (2016) models at z approximate to 6-14.