Skyfire: A Spectroscopic Census of Little Red Dots and Broad-Line AGN in the CEERS Field
Abstract
We present the Skyfire program, a 21-hour Cycle 3 JWST/NIRSpec survey with the G395M medium-resolution grating covering five pointings in the Extended Groth Strip. The survey is designed to carry out a systematic census of faint, broad-line AGN candidates with a range of rest-optical colors identified at z > 3 by the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. Our primary targets include photometrically-selected Little Red Dots (LRDs), blue extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs), and X-ray-detected AGN. We present spectroscopic redshifts for 178 sources observed by Skyfire, as well as a catalog of 34 sources with broad emission lines in the redshift range 2.7 < z < 6.5. Our broad-line sample includes 18 LRDs, which brings the spectroscopic completeness of LRDs with βopt>−0.02 in the CEERS field to 73%. We explore the prevalence of broad emission lines in photometrically-selected LRDs as a function of their rest-frame continuum slope and observed color distributions. We find the broad-line detection fraction in LRDs remains high at relatively blue rest-optical colors and extends smoothly into the bluer regime occupied by Little Blue Dots (LBDs). We discuss the implications of this finding for LRD-LBD unification scenarios. We also find that only 18% (3/17) of EELGs selected primarily for their high-equivalent-width emission lines and compact morphologies exhibit broad emission lines, suggesting these criteria alone are poor predictors of broad-line activity. We present a revised set of LRD selection criteria that captures bluer sources by extending down to βopt=−0.52. Using this new threshold, we find that 80.9+4.6−7.5% of photometrically-selected LRDs brighter than 26.5 in F444W show broad emission lines and that LRDs make up 54% of the overall broad-line population identified in the CEERS field.
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BibTeX
@misc{kocevski2026skyfire,
title = {{Skyfire: A Spectroscopic Census of Little Red Dots and Broad-Line AGN in the CEERS Field}},
author = {Dale D. Kocevski and Anthony J. Taylor and Masafusa Onoue and Kohei Inayoshi and Steven L. Finkelstein and Guillermo Barro and Jingsong Guo and Pablo Arrabal Haro and Jonathan R. Trump and Rebecca L. Larson and Mark Dickinson and Casey Papovich and Fabio Pacucci and Pablo G. Perez-Gonzalez and Michaela Hirschmann and Elizabeth J. McGrath and Brenda L. Jones and Nikko J. Cleri and Kelcey Davis and Mauro Giavalisco and Norman A. Grogin and Taylor A. Hutchison and Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe and Allison Kirkpatrick and Gene C. K. Leung and Rachel S. Somerville and Stephen M. Wilkins},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.00112},
eprint = {2609.00112},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00112},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Skyfire: A Spectroscopic Census of Little Red Dots and Broad-Line AGN in the CEERS Field
AU - Dale D. Kocevski
AU - Anthony J. Taylor
AU - Masafusa Onoue
AU - Kohei Inayoshi
AU - Steven L. Finkelstein
AU - Guillermo Barro
AU - Jingsong Guo
AU - Pablo Arrabal Haro
AU - Jonathan R. Trump
AU - Rebecca L. Larson
AU - Mark Dickinson
AU - Casey Papovich
AU - Fabio Pacucci
AU - Pablo G. Perez-Gonzalez
AU - Michaela Hirschmann
AU - Elizabeth J. McGrath
AU - Brenda L. Jones
AU - Nikko J. Cleri
AU - Kelcey Davis
AU - Mauro Giavalisco
AU - Norman A. Grogin
AU - Taylor A. Hutchison
AU - Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe
AU - Allison Kirkpatrick
AU - Gene C. K. Leung
AU - Rachel S. Somerville
AU - Stephen M. Wilkins
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.00112
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00112
AB - We present the Skyfire program, a 21-hour Cycle 3 JWST/NIRSpec survey with the G395M medium-resolution grating covering five pointings in the Extended Groth Strip. The survey is designed to carry out a systematic census of faint, broad-line AGN candidates with a range of rest-optical colors identified at z > 3 by the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. Our primary targets include photometrically-selected Little Red Dots (LRDs), blue extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs), and X-ray-detected AGN. We present spectroscopic redshifts for 178 sources observed by Skyfire, as well as a catalog of 34 sources with broad emission lines in the redshift range 2.7 < z < 6.5. Our broad-line sample includes 18 LRDs, which brings the spectroscopic completeness of LRDs with β_opt>−0.02 in the CEERS field to 73%. We explore the prevalence of broad emission lines in photometrically-selected LRDs as a function of their rest-frame continuum slope and observed color distributions. We find the broad-line detection fraction in LRDs remains high at relatively blue rest-optical colors and extends smoothly into the bluer regime occupied by Little Blue Dots (LBDs). We discuss the implications of this finding for LRD-LBD unification scenarios. We also find that only 18% (3/17) of EELGs selected primarily for their high-equivalent-width emission lines and compact morphologies exhibit broad emission lines, suggesting these criteria alone are poor predictors of broad-line activity. We present a revised set of LRD selection criteria that captures bluer sources by extending down to β_opt=−0.52. Using this new threshold, we find that 80.9^+4.6_−7.5% of photometrically-selected LRDs brighter than 26.5 in F444W show broad emission lines and that LRDs make up 54% of the overall broad-line population identified in the CEERS field.
ER -