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Discovery of low-redshift analogues to "Little Red Dots" in DESI: A later evolutionary stage of compact LRDs?

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

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abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recently discovered a population of compact, red sources at z > 4 known as "Little Red Dots" (LRDs). They are characterized by their V-shaped continuum spectra and prominent broad Balmer emission lines. As their underlying physical nature remains debated and direct study at high-redshift is challenging; therefore, we seek to identify and characterize LRD analogues in the low-redshift universe to constrain their properties and potential evolutionary pathways. We identified five candidates at z = 0.2-0.4 from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that exhibit spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and broad Balmer emission lines closely resembling their high-redshift counterparts. However, we find significant differences: our low-redshift sample occupies a different region on the Baldwin, Phillips \& Terlevich (BPT) diagram, and their stellar masses are significantly higher, suggesting a more substantial host galaxy contribution. These sources are not necessarily direct local analogues of high-redshift LRDs, but may represent later evolutionary stages of compact, rapidly accreting systems, or systems with related observational properties arising under different physical conditions. This sample provides a valuable laboratory for detailed follow-up studies to elucidate the nature of LRD-like phenomena.

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astro-ph.GA 3

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2026 3

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representative citing papers

(LRDs)$^2$: The Low-ReDshift Little Red Dots Survey. II. DESI DR1 Sample

astro-ph.GA · 2026-05-20 · unverdicted · novelty 7.0

The survey identifies 27 low-redshift LRDs with compact morphology, V-shaped continua, broad Balmer lines with extreme decrements, and ubiquitous outflows, matching high-z counterparts and yielding a number density lower limit of 7.5e-10 cMpc^-3.

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