A Census of Photometrically Selected Little Red Dots at 4 < z < 9 in JWST Blank Fields

Abstract Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered numerous faint active galactic nuclei (AGN) at z ∼ 5 and beyond. These objects are key to our understanding of the formation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs), their coevolution with host galaxies, as well as the role of AGN in cosmic reionization. Using photometric colors and size measurements, we perform a search for compact red objects in an array of blank deep JWST/NIRCam fields totaling ∼640 arcmin 2 . Our careful selection yields 260 reddened AGN candidates at 4 < z phot < 9, dominated by a point-source-like central component (〈 r eff 〉 < 130 pc) and displaying a dichotomy in their rest-frame colors (blue UV and…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 1007052
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: 5-03127, NAS 5-03127
• NU
  Northwestern University
• ST
  Space Telescope Science Institute

  Awards: 5-03127, NAS 5-03127
• EC
  European Commission
• NR
  National Research Foundation
• RG
  Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
• DG
  Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
• NO
  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

  Awards: 016.VIDI.189.162, VI.C.212.036, 016.VIDI.189.16