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RUBIES: JWST/NIRSpec Confirmation of an Infrared-luminous, Broad-line Little Red Dot with an Ionized Outflow
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abstract
The JWST discovery of ``little red dots'' (LRDs) is reshaping our picture of the early Universe, yet the physical mechanisms driving their compact size and UV-optical colors remain elusive. Here we report an unusually bright LRD ($z=3.1$) observed as part of the RUBIES program. This LRD exhibits broad emission lines (FWHM $\sim4000$km/s), a blue UV continuum, a clear Balmer break and a red continuum sampled out to rest 4 $\mu$m with MIRI. We develop a new joint galaxy and AGN model within the Prospector Bayesian inference framework and perform spectrophotometric modeling using NIRCam, MIRI, and NIRSpec/Prism observations. Our fiducial model reveals a $M_*\sim 10^9M_\odot$ galaxy alongside a dust-reddened AGN driving the optical emission. Explaining the rest-frame optical color as a reddened AGN requires $A_{\rm v}\gtrsim3$, suggesting that a great majority of the accretion disk energy is re-radiated as dust emission. Yet despite clear AGN signatures, we find a surprising lack of hot torus emission, which implies that either the dust emission in this object must be cold, or the red continuum must instead be driven by a massive, evolved stellar population of the host galaxy -- seemingly inconsistent with the high EW broad lines (H$\alpha$ EW $\sim800$\AA). The widths and luminosities of Pa$\beta$, Pa$\delta$, Pa$\gamma$, and H$\alpha$ imply a modest black hole mass of $M_{\rm BH}\sim10^8M_\odot$. Additionally, we identify a narrow blue-shifted HeI absorption in G395M spectra, signaling an ionized outflow with kinetic energy up to $\sim1$\% the luminosity of the AGN. The low redshift of RUBIES-BLAGN-1 combined with the depth and richness of the JWST imaging and spectroscopic observations provide a unique opportunity to build a physical model for these so-far mysterious LRDs, which may prove to be a crucial phase in the early formation of massive galaxies and their supermassive black holes.
Forward citations
Cited by 20 Pith papers
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About 44% of little red dots have hydrogen-alpha absorption from outflowing gas, implying radiatively driven outflows rather than static atmospheres.
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Stacking 60 little red dots in ALMA 1.3 mm data yields a 3 sigma dust mass limit near 10^6 solar masses, ten times deeper than previous limits.
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Broad H-alpha and H-beta line strengths in the lensed z=7 Little Red Dot A2744-QSO1 vary by 18 to 22 percent over about 875 rest-frame days, favoring an AGN explanation.
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Three Brown Dwarfs Masquerading as High-Redshift Galaxies in JWST Observations
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Another piece to the puzzle: radio detection of a JWST detected AGN candidate
A multi-field radio search of JWST AGN candidates yields one radio detection and stacking limits that are not yet deep enough to confirm or rule out radio-weakness.
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Little Red Dots are Tidal Disruption Events in Runaway-Collapsing Clusters
Little Red Dots may be tidal disruption events in runaway-collapsing clusters that form intermediate-mass black hole seeds.
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The BlueDOG at Cosmic Noon: A Possible Analog to Little Red Dots?
A z=2.6 hyperluminous dust-obscured galaxy with an LRD-like SED hosts a ~10^10.2 Msun black hole, while the origin of its blue UV excess is left ambiguous.
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Little Red Dots from Small-Scale Primordial Black Hole Clustering
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Little Red reionization factories
LRDs may drive cosmic reionization: tidal fields are said to funnel intergalactic hydrogen into colliding streams at LRD sites, igniting starbursts that ionize the gas.
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