4 papers
Spectral Appearance of Self-gravitating Disks Powered by Stellar Objects: Universal Effective Temperature in the Optical Continuum and Application to Little Red Dots
Yi-Xian Chen, Hanpu Liu, Ruancun Li +6
We revisit the spectral appearance of extended self-gravitating accretion disks surrounding compact central objects such as supermassive black holes. Using dust-poor opacities, we…
Synthetic Spectral Library of Optically Thick Atmospheres for Little Red Dots
Hanpu Liu, Yan-Fei Jiang, Eliot Quataert +3
Little Red Dots (LRDs) challenge conventional models of active galactic nuclei. At rest-optical-to-near-infrared (IR) wavelengths, these compact extragalactic objects show blackbod…
Water absorption confirms cool atmospheres in two little red dots
Bingjie Wang, Joel Leja, Ivo Labbe +35
Little red dots (LRDs) are an abundant population of compact high-redshift sources with red rest-frame optical continua, discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Their…
Pulsational Instability of Quasi-Stars: Interpreting the Variability of Little Red Dots
Matteo Cantiello, Jake B. Hassan, Rosalba Perna +5
The JWST discovery of "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) has revealed a population of compact, red sources at that likely host supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Recent observat…