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arXiv 2602.15935astro-ph.GAastro-ph.COastro-ph.SR
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小红点作为星团形成中的天体

Little Red Dots as Globular Clusters in Formation

The University of Texas at Austin(德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校);Harvard & Smithsonian(哈佛与史密森尼学会);Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie(马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所)

John Chisholm, Danielle A. Berg, Michael Boylan-Kolchin, Anna de Graaff, Lukas J. Furtak, Vasily Kokorev, Jorryt Matthee, Julian B. Muñoz, Rohan P. Naidu, Andreas A. C. Sander

AI总结:

研究提出小红点可能是正在形成的球状星团,通过分析其光谱和光度函数,推测其化学特征与多星群相关,并为早期宇宙的恒星天文学提供新视角。

摘要:

小红点(LRDs),作为JWST在高红移观测中最神秘的发现之一,通常被认为是由吸积的超大质量黑洞驱动的。在这里,我们探讨了这些源可能是正在形成的球状星团的可能性,其静止紫外光来自非常年轻的恒星群体,静止光学光来自寿命短的超大质量(>10^4 M_⊙)恒星。LRDs的光谱特征大致符合这一情景,尽管观测到的温度和光度倾向于由光学厚的连续驱动风重新加工,而当前模型并未完全捕捉到这一点。LRDs在z≈5-7的紫外光度函数自然地演变为现今的恒星质量函数,在标准的演化和质量损失预设下,其质量函数在log₁₀(M_★/M_⊙)=5.3处出现转折,并在高质量处具有指数截断,与本地球状星团群体一致。我们估计所有红移下形成LRDs的现今总数量密度约为0.3 Mpc⁻³,与本地球状星团相似。观测到的LRDs红移范围与金属贫乏球状星团的年龄分布相匹配,但没有当前LRDs对应于金属丰富的群体。如果LRDs是正在形成的球状星团,则预测具有多星群特征的化学丰度模式,包括增强的He和N,以及潜在的Na-O和Al-Mg反相关性。这些结果为探索这一异常丰富的远距离源提供了本地视角,并为早期宇宙中的极端恒星天文学提供了新的窗口。

英文摘要:

Little Red Dots (LRDs), among the most enigmatic high-redshift discoveries by JWST, are commonly believed to be powered by accreting supermassive black holes. Here, we explore the possibility that these sources are globular clusters in formation, with rest-frame UV arising from a very young stellar population and rest-frame optical from a short-lived supermassive ($>10^4$ M$_\odot$) star. The spectral profiles of LRDs are broadly consistent with this scenario, though the observed temperatures and bolometric luminosities favor emission reprocessed by optically thick, continuum-driven winds not fully captured by current models. The LRD $z\sim5-7$ UV luminosity function naturally evolves, under standard evolutionary and mass-loss prescriptions, into a present-day mass function with a turnover at $\log_{10}(M_\ast$/$M_\odot)=5.3$ and an exponential cutoff at high masses, consistent with local globular-cluster populations. We estimate the total present-day number density of LRDs formed across all redshifts to be $\approx0.3$ Mpc$^{-3}$, similar to local globular clusters. The observed LRD redshift range matches the age distribution of metal-poor globular clusters, without current LRD counterparts to the metal-rich population. If LRDs are globular clusters in formation, we predict chemical abundance patterns characteristic of multiple stellar populations, including enhanced He and N, and potential Na-O and Al-Mg anti-correlations. These results offer a local perspective to explore this surprisingly abundant population of distant sources, and a potential new window into extreme stellar astrophysics in the early Universe.

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