Connecting the dots: UV-bright companions of Little Red Dots as Lyman–Werner sources enabling direct-collapse Black Hole formation Baggen, Josephine F.W. Scoggins, Matthew T. Van Dokkum, Pieter Haiman, Zoltán ; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3633-5403 Torralba Torregrosa, Alberto ; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5586-6950 Matthee, Jorryt J ; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2871-127X ddc:520 We compile a sample of 83 little red dots (LRDs) with JWST imaging and find that a substantial fraction (∼43%, rising to ≳80% for the most luminous LRDs) host one or more spatially offset, UV-bright companions at projected separations of 0.5 kpc ≲ d ≲ 5 kpc, with median 〈d〉 = 1.0 kpc. This fraction is even higher when smaller spatial scales are probed at high signal-to-noise ratio: the two most strongly lensed LRDs, A383-LRD1 and the newly discovered A68-LRD1, both have UV-bright companions at separations of only d ∼ 0.3 kpc, below the resolution limit of most unlensed JWST samples. We explore whether these ubiquitous red/blue configurations may be physically linked to the formation of LRDs, in analogy with the “synchronized pair” scenario originally proposed for direct-collapse black hole formation. In this picture, UV radiation from the companions, with typically modest stellar masses (M∗ ∼ 108−109 M⊙), suppresses molecular hydrogen cooling in nearby gas, allowing nearly isothermal collapse and the formation of extremely compact objects, such as massive black holes, supermassive stars, or quasi-stars. Using component-resolved photometry and spectral energy distribution modeling, we infer Lyman–Werner radiation fields of J21,LW ∼ 102.5–105 at the locations of the red components, comparable to those required in direct-collapse models, suggesting that the necessary photodissociation conditions are realized in many LRD systems. This framework provides a simple and self-consistent explanation for the extreme compactness and distinctive spectral properties of LRDs and links long-standing theoretical models for early compact object formation directly to a population now observed with JWST in the early Universe. IOP Publishing 2026 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/21846 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/download/21846/21851 Baggen JFW, Scoggins MT, Van Dokkum P, Haiman Z, Torralba Torregrosa A, Matthee JJ. Connecting the dots: UV-bright companions of Little Red Dots as Lyman–Werner sources enabling direct-collapse Black Hole formation. <i>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</i>. 2026;1002(1). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae58a5">10.3847/2041-8213/ae58a5</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3847/2041-8213/ae58a5 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2041-8205 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/e-issn/2041-8213 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/arxiv/2602.02702 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess