Little Red reionization factories

TL;DR

This paper proposes that high-redshift Little Red Dots (LRDs) are sites of starburst activity driven by tidal interactions, which contribute to cosmic reionization through shock heating and bremsstrahlung radiation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis linking LRDs to reionization, emphasizing the role of tidal fields and shock-induced starbursts in early universe ionization.

Findings

LRDs may facilitate reionization via starburst activities.

Shock heating at LRD sites promotes gas ionization.

Bremsstrahlung radiation from starbursts contributes to optical emission.

Abstract

In this note, we suggest the possibility that an elucidation of the nature of the numerous Little Red Dots (LRDs) at high redshifts, may facilitate the resolution of another concurrent cosmic puzzle, namely reionization. Specifically, it is hypothesized that intergalactic HI gas is compelled by the tidal field associated with a growing gravitational entropy, in the form of gas streams, into colliding at the LRD sites. The resulting shock heating and compression encourage starburst activities, which subsequently photo-ionize the gas into HII, that in turn shines into the rest-optical via bremsstrahlung radiation within the minimal-timescale-cutoff (i.e., red) regime, before escaping back into the intergalactic space, propelled by the newly fusion-injected energy.