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Silencing the Giant: Evidence of AGN Feedback and Quenching in a Little Red Dot at z = 4.13

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arxiv 2407.20320 v2 pith:PXM4MXPB submitted 2024-07-29 astro-ph.GA

classification astro-ph.GA
keywords jwstalphablackbroadclearcompactdataelevated
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abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has uncovered a ubiquitous population of dust-obscured compact sources at $z\gtrsim 4$. Many of these objects exhibit signs of active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity, making their study crucial for understanding the formation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their growth with host galaxies. In this work, we examine low and medium resolution JWST/NIRSpec spectra from the JADES GTO public data release in the GOODS-N field of a red, luminous ($M_{\rm B}\sim-22.2$ mag) and compact ($<500$ pc) source at $z=4.13$. The rest-optical ($\lambda_{\rm rest} > 4000$ A) continuum of this source is strongly dominated by a massive (log$_{10}$[$M_*/M_\odot] \sim 10.6$), quenched (log$_{10}$[sSFR/yr$^{-1}$] $< -11$) galaxy, as indicated by the clear presence of a Balmer break and stellar absorption lines. Star-formation history modeling reveals a starburst episode followed by rapid quenching about 200 Myr ago. The spectrum shows extremely broad (FWHM $\sim 2500$ km/s) H$\alpha$ emission and elevated optical line ratios, indicating an actively accreting SMBH. Moreover, our work has potentially revealed clear AGN signatures in the rest-UV in LRDs for the first time, via a detection of a strong Ly$\alpha$ emission and a broad MgII, doublet. The derived black hole mass of log$_{10}$($M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot) \sim 7.3$ results in $M_{\rm BH}/M_*\sim 0.04$ %, consistent with the local relations, unlike the elevated ratios in other high-$z$ reddened AGN. Finally, we use JWST data from AGN at $z=4-10$ to explore an evolutionary link between high-$z$ reddened AGN, early quiescent galaxies, and local ellipticals.

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Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. An (in)complete NIRSpec census of Balmer absorption in Type 1 AGN -- radiation-driven outflows in little red dots, quasars and variable stars

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    About 44% of little red dots have hydrogen-alpha absorption from outflowing gas, implying radiatively driven outflows rather than static atmospheres.

  2. DeepDive: A deep dive into the physics of the first massive quiescent galaxies in the Universe

    astro-ph.GA 2025-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A new sample of 150 spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at 1<z<5 shows that high-redshift examples have weaker 4000 Å breaks and reveals faint metal absorption even in the youngest subsample.

  3. Little Red reionization factories

    astro-ph.GA 2025-08 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

    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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