TY - JOUR
T1 - JADES and BlackTHUNDER
T2 - rest-frame Balmer-line absorption and the local environment in a Little Red Dot at z = 5
AU - D'Eugenio, Francesco
AU - Juodžbalis, Ignas
AU - Ji, Xihan
AU - Scholtz, Jan
AU - Maiolino, Roberto
AU - Carniani, Stefano
AU - Perna, Michele
AU - Mazzolari, Giovanni
AU - Übler, Hannah
AU - Arribas, Santiago
AU - Bhatawdekar, Rachana
AU - Bunker, Andrew J.
AU - Cresci, Giovanni
AU - Curtis-Lake, Emma
AU - Hainline, Kevin
AU - Inayoshi, Kohei
AU - Isobe, Yuki
AU - Johnson, Benjamin D.
AU - Jones, Gareth C.
AU - Looser, Tobias J.
AU - Nelson, Erica J.
AU - Parlanti, Eleonora
AU - Puskás, Dávid
AU - Rinaldi, Pierluigi
AU - Robertson, Brant
AU - Pino, Bruno Rodríguez Del
AU - Shivaei, Irene
AU - Sun, Fengwu
AU - Tacchella, Sandro
AU - Venturi, Giacomo
AU - Volonteri, Marta
AU - Willmer, Christopher N. A.
AU - Willott, Chris
AU - Witstok, Joris
N1 - © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
PY - 2026/1/31
Y1 - 2026/1/31
N2 - We present a ‘Little Red Dot’ (LRD) broad-line active galactic nucleus (AGN) at z = 5 . 077, observed with NIRSpec/MSA (micro-shutter assembly) and NIRSpec/IFU (integral-field unit) by the JADES ( JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey) and BlackTHUNDER (Black holes in THe early Universe aNd their DensE surRoundings) surveys. Combining spatially resolved and high-resolution spectroscopy, we characterize its central engine, host, and environment. H α has multiple components, including two broad Gaussians, yielding a black-hole mass log ( M•/M ) = 7 . 65, while [O III ] λ5007 gives a galaxy dynamical mass log ( Mdyn / M) = 9 . 1, suggesting an overmassive black hole relative to the host galaxy. The target is immersed in a 7-kpc wide pool of ionized gas and has three neighbours: a satellite galaxy, a possible satellite/gas cloud, and a tentatively detected spatially detached outflow. H α shows strong, rest-frame absorption, deeper than the continuum, ruling out a stellar origin. The velocity and velocity dispersion are vabs = −13 km s−1 and σabs = 120 km s−1 . There is tentative evidence (2.6 σ) of temporal variability in the equivalent width of the H α absorber over two rest-frame months, suggesting a highly dynamic nucleus. Notably, while the H α absorber is clearly visible and even dominant in the high-resolution G 395 H observations, it is not detected in the medium-resolution G 395 M data of the same epoch. This implies that the current incidence rate of absorbers in LRDs – and especially of rest-frame absorbers –may be severely underestimated, because most LRDs rely on lower resolution spectroscopy. The high incidence rate of rest-frame absorbers in LRDs may indicate a configuration that is either intrinsically stationary, such as a rotating disc, or that exhibits time-averaged stability, such as an oscillatory ‘breathing mode’ accretion with cyclic expansion and contraction of the gas around the supermassive black hole.
AB - We present a ‘Little Red Dot’ (LRD) broad-line active galactic nucleus (AGN) at z = 5 . 077, observed with NIRSpec/MSA (micro-shutter assembly) and NIRSpec/IFU (integral-field unit) by the JADES ( JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey) and BlackTHUNDER (Black holes in THe early Universe aNd their DensE surRoundings) surveys. Combining spatially resolved and high-resolution spectroscopy, we characterize its central engine, host, and environment. H α has multiple components, including two broad Gaussians, yielding a black-hole mass log ( M•/M ) = 7 . 65, while [O III ] λ5007 gives a galaxy dynamical mass log ( Mdyn / M) = 9 . 1, suggesting an overmassive black hole relative to the host galaxy. The target is immersed in a 7-kpc wide pool of ionized gas and has three neighbours: a satellite galaxy, a possible satellite/gas cloud, and a tentatively detected spatially detached outflow. H α shows strong, rest-frame absorption, deeper than the continuum, ruling out a stellar origin. The velocity and velocity dispersion are vabs = −13 km s−1 and σabs = 120 km s−1 . There is tentative evidence (2.6 σ) of temporal variability in the equivalent width of the H α absorber over two rest-frame months, suggesting a highly dynamic nucleus. Notably, while the H α absorber is clearly visible and even dominant in the high-resolution G 395 H observations, it is not detected in the medium-resolution G 395 M data of the same epoch. This implies that the current incidence rate of absorbers in LRDs – and especially of rest-frame absorbers –may be severely underestimated, because most LRDs rely on lower resolution spectroscopy. The high incidence rate of rest-frame absorbers in LRDs may indicate a configuration that is either intrinsically stationary, such as a rotating disc, or that exhibits time-averaged stability, such as an oscillatory ‘breathing mode’ accretion with cyclic expansion and contraction of the gas around the supermassive black hole.
KW - astro-ph.GA
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/staf2117
DO - 10.1093/mnras/staf2117
M3 - Article
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 545
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)
IS - 3
ER -