The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
UNCOVER: Candidate Red Active Galactic Nuclei at 3 < z < 7 with JWST and ALMA
- Ivo Labbe,
- Jenny E. Greene,
- Rachel Bezanson,
- Seiji Fujimoto,
- Lukas J. Furtak,
- Andy D. Goulding,
- Jorryt Matthee,
- Rohan P. Naidu,
- Pascal A. Oesch,
- Hakim Atek,
- Gabriel Brammer,
- Iryna Chemerynska,
- Dan Coe,
- Sam E. Cutler,
- Pratika Dayal,
- Robert Feldmann,
- Marijn Franx,
- Karl Glazebrook,
- Joel Leja,
- Michael Maseda,
- Danilo Marchesini,
- Themiya Nanayakkara,
- Erica J. Nelson,
- Richard Pan,
- Casey Papovich,
- Sedona H. Price,
- Katherine A. Suess,
- Bingjie Wang,
- John R. Weaver,
- Katherine E. Whitaker,
- Christina C. Williams,
- Adi Zitrin
Affiliations
- Ivo Labbe
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Jenny E. Greene
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Rachel Bezanson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Seiji Fujimoto
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Lukas J. Furtak
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel
- Andy D. Goulding
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Jorryt Matthee
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, ETH Zurich , Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- Rohan P. Naidu
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Pascal A. Oesch
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Hakim Atek
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014, Paris, France
- Gabriel Brammer
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Iryna Chemerynska
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université , 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014, Paris, France
- Dan Coe
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) , Inc. for the European Space Agency (ESA), USA; Center for Astrophysical Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University , 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Sam E. Cutler
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Pratika Dayal
- ORCiD
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen , P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
- Robert Feldmann
- ORCiD
- Institute for Computational Science, University of Zurich , Winterhurerstrasse 190, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland
- Marijn Franx
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , P.O. Box 9513, NL-2300 AA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Karl Glazebrook
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Joel Leja
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Michael Maseda
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison , 475 N. Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Danilo Marchesini
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University , 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Themiya Nanayakkara
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
- Erica J. Nelson
- ORCiD
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309, USA
- Richard Pan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University , 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA
- Casey Papovich
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA; George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA
- Sedona H. Price
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
- Katherine A. Suess
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University , Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- Bingjie Wang
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational & Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- John R. Weaver
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Katherine E. Whitaker
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark; Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Christina C. Williams
- ORCiD
- NSF ’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Adi Zitrin
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad3551
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 978,
no. 1
p. 92
Abstract
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is revolutionizing our knowledge of z > 5 galaxies and their actively accreting black holes. Using the JWST Cycle 1 Treasury program Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam Observations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER) in the lensing field A2744, we report the identification of a sample of little red dots at 3 < z _phot < 7 that likely contain highly reddened accreting supermassive black holes. Using a NIRCam-only selection to F444W < 27.7 mag, we find 26 sources over the ∼45 arcmin ^2 field that are blue in F115W − F200W ∼ 0 (or β _UV ∼ –2.0 for f _λ ∝ λ ^β ), red in F200W − F444W = 1−4 ( β _opt ∼ +2.0), and are dominated by a point-source-like central component. Of the 20 sources with deep Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.2 mm coverage, none are detected individually or in a stack. For the majority of the sample, spectral energy distribution fits to the JWST+ALMA observations prefer models with hot dust rather than obscured star formation to reproduce the red NIRCam colors and ALMA 1.2 mm nondetections. While compact dusty star formation cannot be ruled out, the combination of extremely small sizes (〈 r _e 〉 ≈ 50 pc after correction for magnification), red rest-frame optical slopes, and hot dust can be explained by reddened broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our targets have faint M _1450 ≈ −14 to −18 mag but inferred bolometric luminosities of L _bol = 10 ^43 –10 ^46 erg s ^−1 , reflecting their obscured nature. If the candidates are confirmed as AGNs with upcoming UNCOVER spectroscopy, then we have found an abundant population of reddened luminous AGNs that are at least ten times more numerous than UV-luminous AGNs at the same intrinsic bolometric luminosity.
Keywords
