UNCOVER: 404 Error -- Models Not Found for the Triply Imaged Little Red Dot A2744-QSO1

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ma, Yilun, Greene, Jenny E., Setton, David J., Volonteri, Marta, Leja, Joel, Wang, Bingjie, Bezanson, Rachel, Brammer, Gabriel, Cutler, Sam E., Dayal, Pratika, van Dokkum, Pieter, Furtak, Lukas J., Glazebrook, Karl, Goulding, Andy D., de Graaff, Anna, Kokorev, Vasily, Labbe, Ivo, Pan, Richard, Price, Sedona H., Weaver, John R., Williams, Christina C., Whitaker, Katherine E., Zitrin, Adi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ma, Yilun
Greene, Jenny E.
Setton, David J.
Volonteri, Marta
Leja, Joel
Wang, Bingjie
Bezanson, Rachel
Brammer, Gabriel
Cutler, Sam E.
Dayal, Pratika
van Dokkum, Pieter
Furtak, Lukas J.
Glazebrook, Karl
Goulding, Andy D.
de Graaff, Anna
Kokorev, Vasily
Labbe, Ivo
Pan, Richard
Price, Sedona H.
Weaver, John R.
Williams, Christina C.
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Zitrin, Adi
author_facet Ma, Yilun
Greene, Jenny E.
Setton, David J.
Volonteri, Marta
Leja, Joel
Wang, Bingjie
Bezanson, Rachel
Brammer, Gabriel
Cutler, Sam E.
Dayal, Pratika
van Dokkum, Pieter
Furtak, Lukas J.
Glazebrook, Karl
Goulding, Andy D.
de Graaff, Anna
Kokorev, Vasily
Labbe, Ivo
Pan, Richard
Price, Sedona H.
Weaver, John R.
Williams, Christina C.
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Zitrin, Adi
contents JWST has revealed an abundance of compact, red objects at $z\approx5-8$ dubbed "little red dots" (LRDs), whose SEDs display a faint blue UV continuum followed by a steep rise in the optical. Despite extensive study of their characteristic V-shaped SEDs, the nature of LRDs remains unknown. We present a new analysis of the NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum of A2744-QSO1, a triply imaged LRD at $z=7.04$ from the UNCOVER survey. The spectrum shows a strong Balmer break and broad Balmer emission lines, both of which are difficult to explain with models invoking exclusively AGN or stellar contributions. Our fiducial model decomposes the spectrum into a post-starburst galaxy dominating the UV-optical continuum and a reddened AGN being sub-dominant at all wavelength and contributing at $\sim20\%$ level. However, our most credible model infers a stellar mass of $M_\star\approx 4\times10^9\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ within a radius of $r_\mathrm{e}<30\,$pc, driving its central density to the highest among observations to date. This high central density could be explained if A2744-QSO-1 is the early-forming core of a modern-day massive elliptical galaxy that later puffed up via the inside-out growth channel. The models also necessitate an unusually steep dust law to preserve the strong break strength, though this steepness may be explained by a deficit of large dust grains. It is also probable that these challenges reflect our ignorance of A2744-QSO1's true nature. Future variability and reverberation mapping studies could help disentangle the galaxy and AGN contribution to the continuum, and deeper redder observations could also unveil the dust properties in LRDs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_06257
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle UNCOVER: 404 Error -- Models Not Found for the Triply Imaged Little Red Dot A2744-QSO1
Ma, Yilun
Greene, Jenny E.
Setton, David J.
Volonteri, Marta
Leja, Joel
Wang, Bingjie
Bezanson, Rachel
Brammer, Gabriel
Cutler, Sam E.
Dayal, Pratika
van Dokkum, Pieter
Furtak, Lukas J.
Glazebrook, Karl
Goulding, Andy D.
de Graaff, Anna
Kokorev, Vasily
Labbe, Ivo
Pan, Richard
Price, Sedona H.
Weaver, John R.
Williams, Christina C.
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Zitrin, Adi
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
JWST has revealed an abundance of compact, red objects at $z\approx5-8$ dubbed "little red dots" (LRDs), whose SEDs display a faint blue UV continuum followed by a steep rise in the optical. Despite extensive study of their characteristic V-shaped SEDs, the nature of LRDs remains unknown. We present a new analysis of the NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum of A2744-QSO1, a triply imaged LRD at $z=7.04$ from the UNCOVER survey. The spectrum shows a strong Balmer break and broad Balmer emission lines, both of which are difficult to explain with models invoking exclusively AGN or stellar contributions. Our fiducial model decomposes the spectrum into a post-starburst galaxy dominating the UV-optical continuum and a reddened AGN being sub-dominant at all wavelength and contributing at $\sim20\%$ level. However, our most credible model infers a stellar mass of $M_\star\approx 4\times10^9\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ within a radius of $r_\mathrm{e}<30\,$pc, driving its central density to the highest among observations to date. This high central density could be explained if A2744-QSO-1 is the early-forming core of a modern-day massive elliptical galaxy that later puffed up via the inside-out growth channel. The models also necessitate an unusually steep dust law to preserve the strong break strength, though this steepness may be explained by a deficit of large dust grains. It is also probable that these challenges reflect our ignorance of A2744-QSO1's true nature. Future variability and reverberation mapping studies could help disentangle the galaxy and AGN contribution to the continuum, and deeper redder observations could also unveil the dust properties in LRDs.
title UNCOVER: 404 Error -- Models Not Found for the Triply Imaged Little Red Dot A2744-QSO1
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.06257