The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2025)
CAPERS-LRD-z9: A Gas-enshrouded Little Red Dot Hosting a Broad-line Active Galactic Nucleus at z = 9.288
- Anthony J. Taylor,
- Vasily Kokorev,
- Dale D. Kocevski,
- Hollis B. Akins,
- Fergus Cullen,
- Mark Dickinson,
- Steven L. Finkelstein,
- Pablo Arrabal Haro,
- Volker Bromm,
- Mauro Giavalisco,
- Kohei Inayoshi,
- Stéphanie Juneau,
- Gene C. K. Leung,
- Pablo G. Pérez-González,
- Rachel S. Somerville,
- Jonathan R. Trump,
- Ricardo O. Amorín,
- Guillermo Barro,
- Denis Burgarella,
- Madisyn Brooks,
- Adam C. Carnall,
- Caitlin M. Casey,
- Yingjie Cheng,
- John Chisholm,
- Katherine Chworowsky,
- Kelcey Davis,
- Callum T. Donnan,
- James S. Dunlop,
- Richard S. Ellis,
- Vital Fernández,
- Seiji Fujimoto,
- Norman A. Grogin,
- Ansh R. Gupta,
- Nimish P. Hathi,
- Intae Jung,
- Michaela Hirschmann,
- Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe,
- Anton M. Koekemoer,
- Rebecca L. Larson,
- Ho-Hin Leung,
- Mario Llerena,
- Ray A. Lucas,
- Derek J. McLeod,
- Ross McLure,
- Lorenzo Napolitano,
- Casey Papovich,
- Thomas M. Stanton,
- Roberta Tripodi,
- Xin Wang,
- Stephen M. Wilkins,
- L. Y. Aaron Yung,
- Jorge A. Zavala
Affiliations
- Anthony J. Taylor
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Vasily Kokorev
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Dale D. Kocevski
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colby College , Waterville, ME 04901, USA
- Hollis B. Akins
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Fergus Cullen
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Mark Dickinson
- ORCiD
- NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Steven L. Finkelstein
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Pablo Arrabal Haro
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Volker Bromm
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Mauro Giavalisco
- ORCiD
- University of Massachusetts Amherst , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003-9305, USA
- Kohei Inayoshi
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
- Stéphanie Juneau
- ORCiD
- NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Gene C. K. Leung
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Pablo G. Pérez-González
- ORCiD
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) , CSIC-INTA, Ctra. de Ajalvir km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, E-28850, Madrid, Spain
- Rachel S. Somerville
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Jonathan R. Trump
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196 Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Ricardo O. Amorín
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) , Apartado 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
- Guillermo Barro
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of the Pacific , Stockton, CA 90340, USA
- Denis Burgarella
- ORCiD
- Aix Marseille Univ , CNRS, CNES, LAM Marseille, France
- Madisyn Brooks
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196 Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Adam C. Carnall
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Caitlin M. Casey
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of California , Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, København N, DK-2200, Denmark
- Yingjie Cheng
- ORCiD
- University of Massachusetts Amherst , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003-9305, USA
- John Chisholm
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Katherine Chworowsky
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Kelcey Davis
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196 Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Callum T. Donnan
- ORCiD
- NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- James S. Dunlop
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Richard S. Ellis
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- Vital Fernández
- ORCiD
- Michigan Institute for Data Science, Unversity of Michigan , 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Seiji Fujimoto
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Norman A. Grogin
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Ansh R. Gupta
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy , The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA ; [email protected]
- Nimish P. Hathi
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Intae Jung
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Michaela Hirschmann
- ORCiD
- Institute of Physics , Laboratory of Galaxy Evolution, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Observatoire de Sauverny, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe
- ORCiD
- Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology , 84 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
- Anton M. Koekemoer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Rebecca L. Larson
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Ho-Hin Leung
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Mario Llerena
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , via Frascati 33, 00078, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
- Ray A. Lucas
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Derek J. McLeod
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Ross McLure
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Lorenzo Napolitano
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , via Frascati 33, 00078, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy; Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Sapienza , Città Universitaria di Roma—Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2, 00185, Roma, Italy
- 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
- Thomas M. Stanton
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Roberta Tripodi
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , via Frascati 33, 00078, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy; IFPU—Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe , Via Beirut 2, I-34014 Trieste, Italy
- Xin Wang
- ORCiD
- School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) , Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; National Astronomical Observatories , Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China; Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University , Beijing 102206, People’s Republic of China
- Stephen M. Wilkins
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex , Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK; Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy, University of Malta , Msida MSD 2080, Malta
- L. Y. Aaron Yung
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Jorge A. Zavala
- ORCiD
- University of Massachusetts Amherst , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003-9305, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade789
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 989,
no. 1
p. L7
Abstract
We present CAPERS-LRD-z9, a little red dot (LRD) that we confirm to be a z = 9.288 broad-line active galactic nucleus (BLAGN). First identified as a high-redshift LRD candidate from PRIMER NIRCam photometry, follow-up NIRSpec/PRISM spectroscopy of CAPERS-LRD-z9 from the CANDELS-Area Prism Epoch of Reionization Survey (CAPERS) has revealed a broad 3500 km s ^−1 full width at half-maximum H β emission line and narrow [O iii ] λλ 4959, 5007 lines, indicative of a BLAGN. Based on the broad H β line, we compute a canonical black hole mass of ${\mathrm{log}}\,({M}_{{\rm{BH}}}/{M}_{\odot })=7.58\pm 0.15$ , although full consideration of systematic uncertainties yields a conservative range of $6.65\lt {\mathrm{log}}\,({M}_{{\rm{BH}}}/{M}_{\odot })\lt 8.50$ . These observations suggest that either a massive black hole seed or a lighter stellar remnant seed undergoing periods of super-Eddington accretion is necessary to grow such a massive black hole in ≲500 Myr of cosmic time. CAPERS-LRD-z9 exhibits a strong Balmer break, consistent with a central AGN surrounded by dense (∼10 ^10 cm ^−3 ) neutral gas. We model CAPERS-LRD-z9 using Cloudy to fit the emission redward of the Balmer break with a dense-gas-enshrouded AGN and bagpipes to fit the rest-ultraviolet emission as a host-galaxy stellar population. This upper limit on the stellar mass of the host galaxy (5% (although systematic uncertainties on the black hole mass prevent strong conclusions). However, the shape of the UV continuum differs from typical high-redshift star-forming galaxies, indicating that this UV emission may also be of AGN origin; hence, the true stellar mass of the host may be still lower.
Keywords
