Astronomy Colloquium
Nov
18
2025
Nov
18
2025
Description
What Little Red Dots Reveal About Black Hole Growth in the Early Universe
One of the more surprising results from JWST has been the discovery of a large population of red, broad-line AGN known as “little red dots” (LRDs). LRDs are ubiquitous in the early universe (4<z<9), but become exceedingly rare at z<3. The prevailing theory is that LRDs represent an early phase of black hole (BH) growth; possibly the first one or two accretion episodes after the formation of a BH seed. I will present my work studying the LRD population, including the discovery of the first LRD with broad-line emission, our compilation of a statistical sample of LRDs in the JWST legacy fields, and our recent discovery of the highest redshift LRD yet identified at z=9.3. I will also present our recent work examining the evolution in the BH-galaxy stellar mass relationship, which suggests LRDs are powered by BHs that lie above local scaling relationships and become increasingly overmassive with redshift. I will discuss what LRDs tell us about BH seeding mechanisms and the early co-evolution of galaxies and their central BHs.
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