No [C II] or dust detection in two Little Red Dots at zspec > 7

  • Mengyuan Xiao*
  • , Pascal A. Oesch
  • , Longji Bing
  • , David Elbaz
  • , Jorryt Matthee
  • , Yoshinobu Fudamoto
  • , Seiji Fujimoto
  • , Rui Marques-Chaves
  • , Christina C. Williams
  • , Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky
  • , Francesco Valentino
  • , Gabriel Brammer
  • , Alba Covelo-Paz
  • , Emanuele Daddi
  • , Johan P.U. Fynbo
  • , Steven Gillman
  • , Michele Ginolfi
  • , Emma Giovinazzo
  • , Jenny E. Greene
  • , Qiusheng Gu
  • Garth Illingworth, Kohei Inayoshi, Vasily Kokorev, Romain A. Meyer, Rohan P. Naidu, Naveen A. Reddy, Daniel Schaerer, Alice Shapley, Mauro Stefanon, Charles L. Steinhardt, David J. Setton, Marianne Vestergaard, Tao Wang
*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Little Red Dots (LRDs) are compact, point-like sources characterized by their red color and broad Balmer lines; it is a matter of debate whether they are dominated by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Here we report two LRDs (ID9094 and ID2756) at zspec > 7 recently discovered in the JWST FRESCO GOODS-North field. Both satisfy the “v-shaped” color and compactness criteria for LRDs and are identified as Type-I AGN candidates based on their broad Hβ emission lines (full width at half maximum: 2280 ± 490 km s-1 for ID9094 and 1070 ± 240 km s-1 for ID2756) and narrow [O III] lines (≃300-400 km s-1). To investigate their nature, we conducted deep NOEMA follow-up observations targeting the [C II] 158 µm emission line and the 1.3 mm dust continuum. We do not detect [C II] or 1.3 mm continuum emission for either source. If the two LRDs were DSFGs, we would expect significant detections: >16σ for [C II] and >3σ for the 1.3 mm continuum of ID9094, and >5σ for the [C II] of ID2756. Using the 3σ upper limits of [C II] and 1.3 mm, we performed two analyses: (1) UV-to-far-infrared spectral energy distribution fitting with and without AGN components, and (2) comparison of their properties with the L[C II]–SFRtot empirical relation. Both analyses are consistent with a scenario in which AGN activity contributes to the observed properties, though a dusty star-forming origin cannot be fully ruled out. Our results highlight the importance of far-infrared observations for studying LRDs, a regime that remains largely unexplored.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA231
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume700
Number of pages12
ISSN0004-6361
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Keywords

  • Galaxies: active
  • Galaxies: high-redshift
  • Galaxies: photometry
  • Galaxies: star formation
  • Submillimeter: galaxies

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