Black Hole Seeds and Little Red Dots: Connecting Formation and Growth with a JWST Multi-Cycle Treasury Program

@misc{pacucci2026black,
  title = {{Black Hole Seeds and Little Red Dots: Connecting Formation and Growth with a JWST Multi-Cycle Treasury Program}},
  author = {Fabio Pacucci and Raffaella Schneider and Harley Katz and Brant E. Robertson and Rachel S. Somerville and Abdurro'uf and K. Aditya and Jose M. Afonso and Junya Arita and Guillermo Barro and Arghyadeep Basu and Ryan Begley and Sownak Bose and Marusa Bradac and Greg L. Bryan and Christopher Cain and Riccardo Caleno and Alex J. Cameron and Stefano Carniani and Hyunseop Choi and Nicholas Choustikov and Emma Curtis-Lake and Alessia D'Angelo and Romeel Dave and Rebecca L. Davies and Kelcey Davis and Callum T. Donnan and Qiao Duan and Yohan Dubois and Andreas L. Faisst and Marion Farcy and Steven L. Finkelstein and Steven Gillman and Luca Graziani and Ansh R. Gupta and Thales A. Gutcke and Martin G. Haehnelt and Nimish P. Hathi and Evanthia Hatziminaoglou and Kasper E. Heintz and Michaela Hirschmann and Lucy R. Ivey and Kartheik Iyer and Junehyoung Jeon and Brenda L. Jones and Ignas Juodzbalis and Anton M. Koekemoer and Christian Kragh Jespersen and Danial Langeroodi and Andrea Lapi and Muhammad A. Latif and Yuankang Liu and Christopher C. Lovell and Kentaro Nagamine and Priyamvada Natarajan and Zhiwei Pan and Robert Pascalau and Pablo G. Pérez-González and Elia Pizzati and Eniko Regos},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.07006},
  eprint = {2611.07006},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07006},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Black Hole Seeds and Little Red Dots: Connecting Formation and Growth with a JWST Multi-Cycle Treasury Program
AU  - Fabio Pacucci
AU  - Raffaella Schneider
AU  - Harley Katz
AU  - Brant E. Robertson
AU  - Rachel S. Somerville
AU  - Abdurro'uf
AU  - K. Aditya
AU  - Jose M. Afonso
AU  - Junya Arita
AU  - Guillermo Barro
AU  - Arghyadeep Basu
AU  - Ryan Begley
AU  - Sownak Bose
AU  - Marusa Bradac
AU  - Greg L. Bryan
AU  - Christopher Cain
AU  - Riccardo Caleno
AU  - Alex J. Cameron
AU  - Stefano Carniani
AU  - Hyunseop Choi
AU  - Nicholas Choustikov
AU  - Emma Curtis-Lake
AU  - Alessia D'Angelo
AU  - Romeel Dave
AU  - Rebecca L. Davies
AU  - Kelcey Davis
AU  - Callum T. Donnan
AU  - Qiao Duan
AU  - Yohan Dubois
AU  - Andreas L. Faisst
AU  - Marion Farcy
AU  - Steven L. Finkelstein
AU  - Steven Gillman
AU  - Luca Graziani
AU  - Ansh R. Gupta
AU  - Thales A. Gutcke
AU  - Martin G. Haehnelt
AU  - Nimish P. Hathi
AU  - Evanthia Hatziminaoglou
AU  - Kasper E. Heintz
AU  - Michaela Hirschmann
AU  - Lucy R. Ivey
AU  - Kartheik Iyer
AU  - Junehyoung Jeon
AU  - Brenda L. Jones
AU  - Ignas Juodzbalis
AU  - Anton M. Koekemoer
AU  - Christian Kragh Jespersen
AU  - Danial Langeroodi
AU  - Andrea Lapi
AU  - Muhammad A. Latif
AU  - Yuankang Liu
AU  - Christopher C. Lovell
AU  - Kentaro Nagamine
AU  - Priyamvada Natarajan
AU  - Zhiwei Pan
AU  - Robert Pascalau
AU  - Pablo G. Pérez-González
AU  - Elia Pizzati
AU  - Eniko Regos
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.07006
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07006
AB  - JWST has revealed an abundant population of faint active galactic nuclei and a new class of compact, high-redshift sources known as Little Red Dots (LRDs), whose physical nature remains debated, with accreting massive black holes among the leading explanations. The emerging demographics of early black holes, with their high inferred number densities and, in some systems, the apparent excess of black hole mass relative to stellar mass, challenge simple scenarios of black hole seeding and growth. Despite these observational breakthroughs, the origin of early massive black holes remains uncertain, because "black holes have no memory": current samples cannot separate the imprint of seeding from subsequent growth. This white paper identifies the multi-cycle JWST observations needed to revolutionize our understanding of early black hole growth by: (i) distinguishing seeding pathways, (ii) constraining early black hole growth mechanisms, (iii) resolving the physical nature of broad-line emitters and LRDs, and (iv) testing black hole-galaxy co-evolution. These tasks require uniformly selected samples extending to low black hole and host-galaxy masses, allowing self-consistent measurements of black hole mass functions, Eddington-ratio distributions, and host properties. Grating spectroscopy, deep MIRI imaging, and variability analysis through repeated observations of the same fields would provide complementary tests of black hole formation and growth, their connection to host-galaxy evolution, and the nature of newly discovered populations of LRDs. In this white paper, we argue that these joint tests require a coordinated JWST Multi-Cycle Treasury program; such a program could provide the depth, uniformity, and time baseline needed to place substantially stronger, complementary constraints on early black hole formation, growth, and their connection to galaxy evolution.
ER  -