Dust Budget Crisis in Little Red Dots

The preprint challenges the prevailing paradigm that Little Red Dots (LRDs) are heavily dust-reddened Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). The current paradigm, based on their red spectra, suggests high extinction levels (Av ~ 3).

The authors present evidence suggesting a “dust budget crisis,” where the observed faint infrared emission from LRDs is inconsistent with such high extinction. They find that modeling the LRD spectra with lower extinction values (Av ≤ 1.5) better reconciles the observed data across UV to infrared wavelengths. This lower extinction implies a radiative efficiency more in line with the broader AGN population, challenging the current understanding and potentially leading to a shift in how we interpret these objects. The uncertainty between Model Drift and Model Crisis arises from the authors’ emphasis on a “paradigm shift,” which hints at a crisis. However, the core argument revolves around refining the extinction level within the existing AGN paradigm for LRDs, aligning more with a model drift. The observational data presented, while compelling, doesn’t fully dismantle the current paradigm but rather advocates for significant adjustments within it.