Too many or too massive? Investigating the high-$z$ demography of active SMBHs from JWST

Recent JWST observations have unveiled a numerous population of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) at $4< z 5.5$. Continuity-equation modelling shows that initially high $M_{\rm BH}-M_{*}$ relations predict a strong two-phase evolutionary scenario and very steep low-mass SMBH mass functions in tension with several current estimates, while more moderate relations generate local SMBH mass functions in better agreement with present determinations and near-constant scaling relations. Our results favour a scenario where SMBHs at $z \sim 5$ on average lie modestly above local AGN scaling relations, with elevated but physically plausible duty cycles. Future wide-field clustering and demographic studies will help break the remaining degeneracies between SMBH scaling relations and AGN duty cycles at early cosmic times.