Yosefi, Efrat

Early observations of JWST have revealed an unexpected population of extremely red and
compact high redshift sources, termed Little Red Dots (LRDs). Characterized by their distinctive
"V-shape" Spectral Energy Distribution (SED), and broad emission lines, LRDs are often
considered to be Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). However, their exact nature remains uncertain.
In this work, I develop a custom SED fitting pipeline for LRDs, adopting the notion they are
AGN. Using photometric data, the pipeline estimates the physical properties of the object, such
as redshift, intrinsic luminosity, strength of dust extinction, and the temperature of that dust.
Our pipeline is first validated against two established LRD sources, reproducing their properties.
We then present a sample of 26 LRD candidates selected from the MS0451 field and the
PEARLS project, utilizing a well-defined set of color and morphology selection criteria. From
our analysis, 12 sources are identified as promising LRD candidates, six show tentative consistency
but require further data, five remain inconclusive, and three are ruled out. With the aid of
our pipeline, the AGN model places these objects at redshifts z ∼ 2.63−8.36, with dust extinction
Av ∼ 1.1 − 5.4, and intrinsic luminosities in the range L ∼ 1042−44erg s−1. In addition,
we analyzed a second sample of 25 candidates that were previously selected from the Hubble
Frontier Fields.
The pipeline may be extended with additional components to explain the observations, as
recent data imply. It shows promise for future use in estimating LRDs physical parameters.