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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05434 |
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| _version_ | 1866915482916880384 |
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| author | Greene, Jenny E. Setton, David J. Furtak, Lukas J. Naidu, Rohan P. Volonteri, Marta Dayal, Pratika Labbe, Ivo van Dokkum, Pieter Bezanson, Rachel Brammer, Gabriel Cutler, Sam E. Glazebrook, Karl de Graaff, Anna Hirschmann, Michaela Hviding, Raphael E. Kokorev, Vasily Leja, Joel Liu, Hanpu Ma, Yilun Matthee, Jorryt Nanayakkara, Themiya Oesch, Pascal A. Pan, Richard Price, Sedona H. Spilker, Justin S. Wang, Bingjie Weaver, John R. Whitaker, Katherine E. Williams, Christina C. Zitrin, Adi |
| author_facet | Greene, Jenny E. Setton, David J. Furtak, Lukas J. Naidu, Rohan P. Volonteri, Marta Dayal, Pratika Labbe, Ivo van Dokkum, Pieter Bezanson, Rachel Brammer, Gabriel Cutler, Sam E. Glazebrook, Karl de Graaff, Anna Hirschmann, Michaela Hviding, Raphael E. Kokorev, Vasily Leja, Joel Liu, Hanpu Ma, Yilun Matthee, Jorryt Nanayakkara, Themiya Oesch, Pascal A. Pan, Richard Price, Sedona H. Spilker, Justin S. Wang, Bingjie Weaver, John R. Whitaker, Katherine E. Williams, Christina C. Zitrin, Adi |
| contents | New populations of red active galactic nuclei (known as ``Little Red Dots'') discovered by JWST exhibit remarkable spectral energy distributions. Leveraging X-ray through far-infrared observations of two of the most luminous known Little Red Dots, we directly their bolometric luminosities. We find evidence that more than half of the bolometric luminosity likely emerges in the rest-frame optical, with $L_{\rm bol}/L_{5100} = 5$, roughly half the value for ``standard'' Active Galactic Nuclei. Meanwhile, the X-ray emitting corona, UV-emitting black-body, and reprocessed mid to far-infrared emission are all considerably sub-dominant, assuming that the far-infrared luminosity is well below current measured limits. We present new bolometric corrections that dramatically lower inferred bolometric luminosities by a factor of ten compared to published values in the literature. These bolometric corrections are in accord with expectations from models in which gas absorption and reprocessing are responsible for the red rest-frame optical colors of Little Red Dots. We discuss how this lowered luminosity scale suggests a lower mass scale for the population by at least an order of magnitude {\bf (e.g., $\sim 10^5-10^7~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ black holes, and $\sim 10^8~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ galaxies)}, alleviating tensions with clustering, overmassive black holes, and the integrated black hole mass density in the Universe. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_05434 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | What you see is what you get: empirically measured bolometric luminosities of Little Red Dots Greene, Jenny E. Setton, David J. Furtak, Lukas J. Naidu, Rohan P. Volonteri, Marta Dayal, Pratika Labbe, Ivo van Dokkum, Pieter Bezanson, Rachel Brammer, Gabriel Cutler, Sam E. Glazebrook, Karl de Graaff, Anna Hirschmann, Michaela Hviding, Raphael E. Kokorev, Vasily Leja, Joel Liu, Hanpu Ma, Yilun Matthee, Jorryt Nanayakkara, Themiya Oesch, Pascal A. Pan, Richard Price, Sedona H. Spilker, Justin S. Wang, Bingjie Weaver, John R. Whitaker, Katherine E. Williams, Christina C. Zitrin, Adi Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics New populations of red active galactic nuclei (known as ``Little Red Dots'') discovered by JWST exhibit remarkable spectral energy distributions. Leveraging X-ray through far-infrared observations of two of the most luminous known Little Red Dots, we directly their bolometric luminosities. We find evidence that more than half of the bolometric luminosity likely emerges in the rest-frame optical, with $L_{\rm bol}/L_{5100} = 5$, roughly half the value for ``standard'' Active Galactic Nuclei. Meanwhile, the X-ray emitting corona, UV-emitting black-body, and reprocessed mid to far-infrared emission are all considerably sub-dominant, assuming that the far-infrared luminosity is well below current measured limits. We present new bolometric corrections that dramatically lower inferred bolometric luminosities by a factor of ten compared to published values in the literature. These bolometric corrections are in accord with expectations from models in which gas absorption and reprocessing are responsible for the red rest-frame optical colors of Little Red Dots. We discuss how this lowered luminosity scale suggests a lower mass scale for the population by at least an order of magnitude {\bf (e.g., $\sim 10^5-10^7~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ black holes, and $\sim 10^8~{\rm M_{\odot}}$ galaxies)}, alleviating tensions with clustering, overmassive black holes, and the integrated black hole mass density in the Universe. |
| title | What you see is what you get: empirically measured bolometric luminosities of Little Red Dots |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05434 |