---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
_id: '22814'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "We present a study of a pseudo little red dot with no metal lines (Pseudo-LRD-NOM),
    a highly magnified lowmass galaxy behind the lensing cluster A370 at z = 5.96.
    We classify this object as a pseudo-LRD because its red\r\nrest-frame optical
    color is contaminated by a prominent Hα line (with EW0 ≳ 800 Å) present in its
    JWST\r\nNIRSpec spectrum. Hα is dominated by a narrow component and also has a
    minor broad component indicative of\r\nan active black hole with MBH ≈ 5.6 × 10^6
    M⊙. A narrow Hβ emission line is also detected (where the signal-tonoise ratio,
    S/N, is 8), producing a Balmer decrement (narrow) Hα/Hβ = 11. The rest-frame UV
    spectral slope is ßspec/uv = - 1.20 ± 0.28. All these features can be ascribed
    to high dust attenuation. However, no [O III]λ5007 or\r\nany other metal lines
    are detected in the spectrum, so [O III]5007/Hβ < 0.25, at odds with a simple
    dust attenuation explanation. Accounting for all the spectral properties requires
    the model of a starburst with moderate\r\ncolor excess E(B − V )≈0.2–0.5, high
    gas density (nH ≳ 10^6 cm^−3\r\n), and low- to extremely-low gas/stellar\r\nmetallicities
    (Z = 0.01–0.1 Z⊙). The demagnified stellar mass is\r\n× 2.25+\r\n0\r\n1\r\n.\r\n.\r\n8\r\n3\r\n3\r\n0
    10^7 M , and the stellar-mass surface\r\ndensity is = +\r\n* 418 M pc 310\r\n725
    2, similar to that of massive/nuclear star clusters. Pseudo-LRD-NOM provides\r\nevidence
    of massive black-hole growth occurring in a high-density, dusty starburst that
    is at the early stages of its\r\nchemical enrichment, and is likely a precursor
    to a real LRD."
acknowledgement: "We are grateful to Daniela Calzetti, Andrea Ferrara, Kohei Inayoshi,
  Roberto Maiolino, Gabriele Pezzulli, Fengwu Sun, and Z. Yan for useful discussions;
  José M. Diego for providing us the most updated magnification value for our source;
  Raphael Hviding for making his Python package unite public and instructing us regarding
  its use; and Elka Rusta and Stefania Salvadori for providing us their galaxy SED
  models with hybrid Pop III stellar populations. We also thank the anonymous referee
  for a useful and constructive report.\r\n\r\nThis work is based on observations
  made with the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive
  for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated
  by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract
  NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with the JWST GTO program
  PID 1208. The specific observations analyzed here can be accessed via doi:10.17909/pyr9-5r43.
  Some of the analyzed data products were retrieved from the Dawn JWST Archive (DJA).
  DJA is an initiative of the Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), which is funded by the Danish
  National Research Foundation under grant DNRF140. This work is also based on observations
  made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope
  Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research
  in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 526555.\r\n\r\nK.I.C. and R.N.C. acknowledge
  funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) through the award of the Vici grant
  VI.C.212.036."
article_number: '203'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Karina I.
  full_name: Caputi, Karina I.
  last_name: Caputi
- first_name: Ryan A.
  full_name: Cooper, Ryan A.
  last_name: Cooper
- first_name: Pierluigi
  full_name: Rinaldi, Pierluigi
  last_name: Rinaldi
- first_name: Rafael
  full_name: Navarro-Carrera, Rafael
  last_name: Navarro-Carrera
- first_name: Edoardo
  full_name: Iani, Edoardo
  id: 4053390a-6b68-11ef-9828-a3b8adef8d0a
  last_name: Iani
  orcid: 0000-0001-8386-3546
- first_name: Abigail A.
  full_name: Tumborang, Abigail A.
  last_name: Tumborang
citation:
  ama: 'Caputi KI, Cooper RA, Rinaldi P, Navarro-Carrera R, Iani E, Tumborang AA.
    Pseudo Little Red Dot: An active black hole embedded in a dense and dusty, metal-poor
    starburst galaxy at z = 5.96. <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. 2026;1007(2).
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9">10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9</a>'
  apa: 'Caputi, K. I., Cooper, R. A., Rinaldi, P., Navarro-Carrera, R., Iani, E.,
    &#38; Tumborang, A. A. (2026). Pseudo Little Red Dot: An active black hole embedded
    in a dense and dusty, metal-poor starburst galaxy at z = 5.96. <i>The Astrophysical
    Journal</i>. IOP Publishing. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9">https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9</a>'
  chicago: 'Caputi, Karina I., Ryan A. Cooper, Pierluigi Rinaldi, Rafael Navarro-Carrera,
    Edoardo Iani, and Abigail A. Tumborang. “Pseudo Little Red Dot: An Active Black
    Hole Embedded in a Dense and Dusty, Metal-Poor Starburst Galaxy at z = 5.96.”
    <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. IOP Publishing, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9">https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9</a>.'
  ieee: 'K. I. Caputi, R. A. Cooper, P. Rinaldi, R. Navarro-Carrera, E. Iani, and
    A. A. Tumborang, “Pseudo Little Red Dot: An active black hole embedded in a dense
    and dusty, metal-poor starburst galaxy at z = 5.96,” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>,
    vol. 1007, no. 2. IOP Publishing, 2026.'
  ista: 'Caputi KI, Cooper RA, Rinaldi P, Navarro-Carrera R, Iani E, Tumborang AA.
    2026. Pseudo Little Red Dot: An active black hole embedded in a dense and dusty,
    metal-poor starburst galaxy at z = 5.96. The Astrophysical Journal. 1007(2), 203.'
  mla: 'Caputi, Karina I., et al. “Pseudo Little Red Dot: An Active Black Hole Embedded
    in a Dense and Dusty, Metal-Poor Starburst Galaxy at z = 5.96.” <i>The Astrophysical
    Journal</i>, vol. 1007, no. 2, 203, IOP Publishing, 2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9">10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9</a>.'
  short: K.I. Caputi, R.A. Cooper, P. Rinaldi, R. Navarro-Carrera, E. Iani, A.A. Tumborang,
    The Astrophysical Journal 1007 (2026).
das_tickbox: '0'
date_created: 2026-09-06T22:01:56Z
date_published: 2026-08-20T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-09-09T12:19:54Z
day: '20'
ddc:
- '520'
department:
- _id: JoMa
doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2601.11466'
file:
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fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae80b9
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '      1007'
issue: '2'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '08'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: The Astrophysical Journal
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1538-4357
  issn:
  - 0004-637X
publication_status: published
publisher: IOP Publishing
quality_controlled: '1'
researchdata_availability: no
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
supplementarymaterial: no
title: 'Pseudo Little Red Dot: An active black hole embedded in a dense and dusty,
  metal-poor starburst galaxy at z = 5.96'
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 1007
year: '2026'
...