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The recent discovery of little red dots - a population of extremely compact and highly dust-reddened high redshift galaxies - by the James Webb Space Telescope presents a new challenge to the fields of astrophysics and cosmology. Their…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-12-10 Louis M. T. Arts

The JWST discovery of ``little red dots'' (LRDs) is reshaping our picture of the early Universe, yet the physical mechanisms driving their compact size and UV-optical colors remain elusive. Here we report an unusually bright LRD ($z=3.1$)…

After recombination the cosmic gas was left in a cold and neutral state. However, as the first stars and black holes formed within early galactic systems, their UV and X-ray radiation induced a gradual phase transition of the intergalactic…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2014-09-18 Andrea Ferrara , Stefania Pandolfi

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a new class of high-redshift, very red, compact broad-line sources, termed as "little red dots" (LRDs). The physical mechanism driving these properties remains elusive. We construct spectral…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-15 Chenxuan Zhang , Qingwen Wu , Xiao Fan , Luis C. Ho , Jiancheng Wu , Huanian Zhang , Bing Lyu , Xinwu Cao , Jianmin Wang

Using a large set of high resolution numerical simulations incorporating non-equilibrium molecular hydrogen chemistry and a constant source of external radiation, we study gas collapse in previously photo-ionized mini-galaxies with virial…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Sergey Mashchenko , H. M. P. Couchman , Alison Sills

Recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a population of compact, red object ($z\sim 4\text{--}7$) known as little red dots (LRDs). The presence of broad Balmer emission lines indicates active galactic nuclei…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-03 Daisaburo Kido , Kunihito Ioka , Kenta Hotokezaka , Kohei Inayoshi , Christopher M. Irwin

The reionization of cosmic hydrogen, left over from the big bang, increased its temperature to >~ 1.e4 K. This photo-heating resulted in an increase of the minimum mass of galaxies and hence a suppression of the cosmic star formation rate.…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Rennan Barkana , Abraham Loeb

The origin of the rest-optical emission of compact, red, high-redshift sources known as `little red dots' (LRDs) poses a major puzzle. If interpreted as starlight, it would imply that LRDs would constitute the densest stellar systems in the…

Reionization is a process whereby hydrogen (and helium) in the Universe is ionized by the radiation from first luminous sources. Theoretically, the importance of the reionization lies in its close coupling with the formation of first cosmic…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-18 T. Roy Choudhury

Little red dots (LRDs) are a newly identified class of broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) with a distinctive v-shape spectrum characterized by red optical and blue UV continuum emission. Their high abundance at redshifts of $z\sim6-8$…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-04-29 Kohei Inayoshi , Jinyi Shangguan , Xian Chen , Luis C. Ho , Zoltan Haiman

Several observational and theoretical arguments suggest that starburst galaxies may rival quasars as sources of metagalactic ionizing radiation at redshifts z > 3. Reionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z > 5 may arise, in part,…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Massimo Ricotti , J. Michael Shull

The discovery by JWST of a substantial population of compact "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) presents a major puzzle: their observed spectra defy standard astrophysical interpretations. Here, we show that LRD spectra are naturally reproduced by…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-22 Fabio Pacucci , Andrea Ferrara , Dale D. Kocevski

A few percent of red giants are enriched in Lithium with $A(\mathrm{Li}) > 1.5$. Their evolutionary status has remained uncertain because these Li-rich giants can be placed both on the red-giant branch (RGB) near the bump luminosity and in…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2024-10-21 Pavel A. Denissenkov , Simon Blouin , Falk Herwig , Jacob Stott , Paul R. Woodward

We use a set of 3D radiative transfer simulations to study the effect that a large fraction of binary stars in galaxies during the epoch of reionization has on the physical properties of the intergalactic medium (i.e. the gas temperature…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2022-04-20 Qing-Bo Ma , Silvia Fiaschi , Benedetta Ciardi , Philipp Busch , Marius B. Eide

Density inhomogeneity in the intergalactic medium (IGM) can boost the recombination rate of ionized gas substantially, affecting the growth of HII regions during reionization. Previous attempts to quantify this effect typically failed to…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2016-11-09 Hyunbae Park , Paul R. Shapiro , Jun-hwan Choi , Naoki Yoshida , Shingo Hirano , Kyungjin Ahn

The Little Red Dots (LRDs) are high-redshift galaxies uncovered by JWST, characterized by small effective radii ($R_{\rm eff} \sim 80-300$ pc), number densities that are intermediate between those of typical galaxies and quasars, and a…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-08-12 Fabio Pacucci , Abraham Loeb

Using Green Bank Telescope radio recombination line (RRL) data, we analyze the role of leaking radiation from HII regions in maintaining the ionization of the interstellar medium. We observed a sample of eight Galactic HII regions of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-02-27 Matteo Luisi , L. D. Anderson , Bin Liu , D. Anish Roshi , Ed Churchwell

The intergalactic medium was reionized before redshift z~6, most likely by starlight which escaped from early galaxies. The very first stars formed when hydrogen molecules (H2) cooled gas inside the smallest galaxies, minihalos of mass…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-05 Kyungjin Ahn , Ilian T. Iliev , Paul R. Shapiro , Garrelt Mellema , Jun Koda , Yi Mao

The ``Little Red Dots'' (LRDs) are red and compact galaxies detected in JWST deep fields, mainly in the redshift range $z=4-8$. Given their compactness and the inferred stellar masses in the hypothesis that LRDs are starburst galaxies, the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-08-29 Carl Audric Guia , Fabio Pacucci , Dale D. Kocevski

I use cosmological simulations that incorporate a physically motivated approximation to three-dimensional radiative transfer that recovers correct asymptotic ionization front propagation speeds for some cosmologically relevant density…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Nickolay Y. Gnedin