Poster Session 4, 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM: Room 165 [D10]
What Powers the ‘Little Red Dots’ Discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope?
Presenter: Jackson Gilbert Mello Wetherbee
Faculty Sponsor: Min Yun
School: UMass Amherst
Research Area: Astronomy, Cosmology, and Astrophysics
ABSTRACT
Little Red Dots are a new classification of high redshift sources discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. These sources are named after their small size and red color. The nature of these sources is still unknown, as they exhibit traits similar to those of an Active Galactic Nucleus. They also however fail to exhibit certain traits that are characteristic of an Active Galactic Nuclei and some scientists believe other origins for these sources like dusty star formation caused by a massive star cluster. In this project I will show the upper limits of different radio properties of little red dots gathered from the COSMOS 2024 catalog. We will replicate the methods found in the literature to significantly reduce the known upper limits for radio flux, Active Galactic Nuclei power, and Star Formation Rates from these sources. By combining deep radio survey data with careful statistical stacking techniques, this study aims to improve sensitivity beyond previous analyses and place tighter constraints on these upper limits. These results will hopefully help us get a better idea for the nature of these sources as radio waves can offer us valuable information and could narrow down the possibilities for the origin of these sources. Ultimately, refining these limits will clarify whether their emission is dominated by accretion onto supermassive black holes or by compact, dusty star-forming regions in the early universe.