Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots
Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a new class of high-redshift (high- z , z > 4) compact galaxies that are red in the rest-frame optical and blue in the rest-frame UV with V-shaped spectral energy distributions (SEDs), referred to as “little red dots” (LRDs). It is very likel...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adaaf1 |
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| author | Ruqiu Lin Zhen-Ya Zheng Chunyan Jiang Fang-Ting Yuan Luis C. Ho Junxian Wang Linhua Jiang James E. Rhoads Sangeeta Malhotra L. Felipe Barrientos Isak Wold Leopoldo Infante Shuairu Zhu Xiang Ji Xiaodan Fu |
| author_facet | Ruqiu Lin Zhen-Ya Zheng Chunyan Jiang Fang-Ting Yuan Luis C. Ho Junxian Wang Linhua Jiang James E. Rhoads Sangeeta Malhotra L. Felipe Barrientos Isak Wold Leopoldo Infante Shuairu Zhu Xiang Ji Xiaodan Fu |
| author_sort | Ruqiu Lin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a new class of high-redshift (high- z , z > 4) compact galaxies that are red in the rest-frame optical and blue in the rest-frame UV with V-shaped spectral energy distributions (SEDs), referred to as “little red dots” (LRDs). It is very likely that LRDs host obscured broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In the meanwhile, Green Pea galaxies (GPs), which are compact dwarf galaxies at low redshift, share various similar properties with high-redshift star-forming galaxies. Here, we aim to find the connection between the LRDs and GPs hosting broad-line AGNs (BLGPs). With a sample of 19 BLGPs obtained from our previous work, we further identify seven GPs with V-shaped rest-frame UV-to-optical SEDs that are likely local analogs to LRDs. These V-shaped BLGPs exhibit faint UV absolute magnitudes and sub-Eddington rates similar to those of LRDs. Three of them occupy a similar region to LRDs in the Baldwin–Philips–Terlevich diagram, suggesting they have similar ionization conditions and gas-phase metallicities to LRDs. These similarities suggest that V-shaped BLGPs can be taken as local analogs of high-redshift LRDs. In addition, most (16/19) BLGPs, including six V-shaped BLGPs, host overmassive black holes (BHs) above the local M _BH – M _* relation, making it the first sample of galaxies hosting overmassive BHs at z < 0.4. These findings will help us learn more about the formation and coevolution of early galaxies and BHs. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-943ca2050e5944e6a6fb2750e6596774 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2041-8205 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-943ca2050e5944e6a6fb2750e65967742025-08-20T02:25:45ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052025-01-019802L3410.3847/2041-8213/adaaf1Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red DotsRuqiu Lin0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3987-0858Zhen-Ya Zheng1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9634-2923Chunyan Jiang2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0003-8557Fang-Ting Yuan3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6763-5869Luis C. Ho4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-5846Junxian Wang5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4419-6434Linhua Jiang6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4176-6486James E. Rhoads7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1501-454XSangeeta Malhotra8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9226-5350L. Felipe Barrientos9https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0151-0718Isak Wold10https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0784-1852Leopoldo Infante11https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8581-932XShuairu Zhu12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2528-0761Xiang Ji13Xiaodan Fu14Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cn; School of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cn; School of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cnShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cnKavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China; Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of ChinaCAS Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei, Anhui 230026, People’s Republic of ChinaKavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China; Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of ChinaAstrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USAAstrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USAInstituto de Astrofísica and Centro de Astroingeniería, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , Casilla 306, Santiago 22, ChileAstrophysics Science Division, Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Department of Physics, The Catholic University of America , Washington, DC 20064, USALas Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution of Washington , Casilla 601, La Serena, Chile; Instituto de Astrofísica , Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 7820436, ChileShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cn; School of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of ChinaShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cnShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China ; zhengzy@shao.ac.cnRecently, the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a new class of high-redshift (high- z , z > 4) compact galaxies that are red in the rest-frame optical and blue in the rest-frame UV with V-shaped spectral energy distributions (SEDs), referred to as “little red dots” (LRDs). It is very likely that LRDs host obscured broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In the meanwhile, Green Pea galaxies (GPs), which are compact dwarf galaxies at low redshift, share various similar properties with high-redshift star-forming galaxies. Here, we aim to find the connection between the LRDs and GPs hosting broad-line AGNs (BLGPs). With a sample of 19 BLGPs obtained from our previous work, we further identify seven GPs with V-shaped rest-frame UV-to-optical SEDs that are likely local analogs to LRDs. These V-shaped BLGPs exhibit faint UV absolute magnitudes and sub-Eddington rates similar to those of LRDs. Three of them occupy a similar region to LRDs in the Baldwin–Philips–Terlevich diagram, suggesting they have similar ionization conditions and gas-phase metallicities to LRDs. These similarities suggest that V-shaped BLGPs can be taken as local analogs of high-redshift LRDs. In addition, most (16/19) BLGPs, including six V-shaped BLGPs, host overmassive black holes (BHs) above the local M _BH – M _* relation, making it the first sample of galaxies hosting overmassive BHs at z < 0.4. These findings will help us learn more about the formation and coevolution of early galaxies and BHs.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adaaf1Emission line galaxiesExtragalactic astronomySupermassive black holes |
| spellingShingle | Ruqiu Lin Zhen-Ya Zheng Chunyan Jiang Fang-Ting Yuan Luis C. Ho Junxian Wang Linhua Jiang James E. Rhoads Sangeeta Malhotra L. Felipe Barrientos Isak Wold Leopoldo Infante Shuairu Zhu Xiang Ji Xiaodan Fu Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots The Astrophysical Journal Letters Emission line galaxies Extragalactic astronomy Supermassive black holes |
| title | Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots |
| title_full | Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots |
| title_fullStr | Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots |
| title_full_unstemmed | Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots |
| title_short | Discovery of Local Analogs to JWST’s Little Red Dots |
| title_sort | discovery of local analogs to jwst s little red dots |
| topic | Emission line galaxies Extragalactic astronomy Supermassive black holes |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adaaf1 |
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