Little Red Dot Progenitors from Compact Starbursts: A Natural Path to Early AGN Formation

Abstract The recent discovery of little red dots (LRDs) by the James Webb Space Telescope has challenged traditional models of early galaxy and black hole coevolution. The nature of these highly compact objects remains heavily debated, with explanations divided between dust-reddened active galactic nuclei (AGN) and extremely dense stellar populations. We perform high-resolution cosmological simulations to model the formation of LRD precursors. Motivated by recent high-redshift observations and theoretical results, we specifically explore environments characterized by high star formation efficiencies (30% and 100%) and confined feedback. Our simulations naturally produce highly compact galaxies with stellar masses of 10 7 –6 × 10 8 M ⊙ , with most of the mass concentrated within 200–300 pc. We find that, in these dense environments, gas inflows, gravitational torques, and stellar dynamical friction operate on highly efficient timescales. Over a 10 Myr timescale, gas inflows can accumulate ∼10 7 M ⊙ at the galactic center, while gravitational torques and dynamical friction can contribute an additional 10 5 –10 9 M ⊙ and 10 3 –10 4 M ⊙ through the inward migration of massive stars. Assuming a conservative 10% efficiency to account for feedback, this rapid mass accumulation can lead to the formation of a ∼10 6 M ⊙ central black hole, naturally giving rise to an AGN in these dense systems. Therefore, stellar and AGN interpretations of LRDs may not be mutually exclusive; rather, dense stellar systems are likely precursors to AGN.