On the Fate of Little Red Dots
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866909932946718720 |
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| author | Escala, Andres Zimmermann, Lucas Valdebenito, Sebastian Vergara, Marcelo C. Schleicher, Dominik R. G. Liempi, Matias |
| author_facet | Escala, Andres Zimmermann, Lucas Valdebenito, Sebastian Vergara, Marcelo C. Schleicher, Dominik R. G. Liempi, Matias |
| contents | We study the stability and possible fates of Little Red Dots, under the stellar-only interpretation of their observational features. This is performed by a combination of analyzing the relevant timescales in their stellar dynamics and also, the application of recent numerical results on the evolution of the densest stellar systems. We find that these objects typically have tage ~ tcoll < trelax, therefore, in an unexplored regime never observed before for a stellar system and potentially, highly unstable to runaway collisions. We study different scenarios for the evolution of Little Red Dots and conclude that in a fair fraction of those systems, the formation of a massive black hole by runaway collisions seems unavoidable, in all the possibilities studied within the stellar-only interpretation. This evolutionary path would naturally explain many of the problematic characteristics of Little Red Dots, including that these objects are probably transient in the history of the Universe, that most of them would not emit X-rays since they would not yet have become massive black holes, and once they do, they would constitute a significant portion of the mass of the Little Red Dots. We conclude that Little Red Dots are the most favourable known places to find a recently formed massive black hole seed, or in the process of formation, most probably formed directly in the supermassive range |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_20453 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | On the Fate of Little Red Dots Escala, Andres Zimmermann, Lucas Valdebenito, Sebastian Vergara, Marcelo C. Schleicher, Dominik R. G. Liempi, Matias Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena We study the stability and possible fates of Little Red Dots, under the stellar-only interpretation of their observational features. This is performed by a combination of analyzing the relevant timescales in their stellar dynamics and also, the application of recent numerical results on the evolution of the densest stellar systems. We find that these objects typically have tage ~ tcoll < trelax, therefore, in an unexplored regime never observed before for a stellar system and potentially, highly unstable to runaway collisions. We study different scenarios for the evolution of Little Red Dots and conclude that in a fair fraction of those systems, the formation of a massive black hole by runaway collisions seems unavoidable, in all the possibilities studied within the stellar-only interpretation. This evolutionary path would naturally explain many of the problematic characteristics of Little Red Dots, including that these objects are probably transient in the history of the Universe, that most of them would not emit X-rays since they would not yet have become massive black holes, and once they do, they would constitute a significant portion of the mass of the Little Red Dots. We conclude that Little Red Dots are the most favourable known places to find a recently formed massive black hole seed, or in the process of formation, most probably formed directly in the supermassive range |
| title | On the Fate of Little Red Dots |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20453 |