Elaina Malczewski
Research Mentor(s): Feige Wang
Mentor Department: Astronomy
Authors: Elaina Malczewski, Feige Wang
Session: Session 2 (10:00am – 10:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 96
Abstract
A population of compact, red active galactic nuclei (AGN) known as “Little Red Dots†(LRDs) has been revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), creating a new mystery for extragalactic astronomy. Theorized to be powered by supermassive black holes and corresponding to intense star formation in their host galaxies, we are interested in investigating the LRDs’ formation and whether their characteristics align with or challenge current understandings of AGN. Using observations from JWST’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph through the GO2028 program, we perform a detailed spectral analysis of the LRDs using a data reduction technique that combines the JWST Science Calibration Pipeline and Pypeit software. The resultant spectra allow us to measure the LRDs’ black hole mass, bolometric luminosity, Eddington ratio, and host galaxy’s stellar mass. Deriving these quantities enables us to examine the relationship between the black holes and their host galaxies as seen in high-redshift LRDs and better understand the anatomy, activity, and origins of supermassive black holes and this population of “Little Red Dots.†Generally, we extrapolate our findings to understand how objects in the early Universe differ from or influence what we observe in the local Universe.
