How I Wonder What You Are -- JWST's Little Red Dots do not TWINKLE
Zhaoran Liu, Rohan P. Naidu, Amy Secunda, Jenny E. Greene, Jorryt Matthee, John Chisholm, Anna de Graaff, Luke Robbins, Jacqueline Antwi-Danso, Gabriel Brammer, Wendy Q. Sun, Anna-Christina Eilers, Seiji Fujimoto, Lukas J. Furtak, Erin Kara, Vasily Kokorev, Danilo Marchesini

TL;DR
This study used JWST to monitor Little Red Dots, revealing no variability and challenging the assumption they host typical AGN, suggesting alternative accretion mechanisms or different natures.
Contribution
First joint spectroscopic and photometric time-domain analysis of LRDs, providing constraints on their central engines and accretion states.
Findings
No variability detected in photometry or Hα flux across 18 LRDs.
Results disfavor sub-Eddington accretion models for LRDs.
Findings suggest super-Eddington accretion or alternative explanations.
Abstract
Little Red Dots (LRDs) are a population of compact, red sources that have emerged as one of the most puzzling findings of JWST. Variability provides a direct probe of their central engines. Here we present the first joint spectroscopic and photometric time-domain study of LRDs undertaken with the JWST TWINKLE slitless spectroscopy program. Surveying the FRESCO GOODS-North legacy field, TWINKLE monitors a complete, H-flux-limited sample of 18 LRDs at z = 3.9-6.8, achieving a rest-frame baseline of 140-220 days. We detect no variability in photometry, H line flux, or line shape across the sample. If LRDs resembled AGN in reverberation mapping samples -- the foundation for black hole mass calibrations and luminosity scaling relations -- we would expect >10 sources to show measurable fluctuations. Observing none implies a 5.9 deficit. The non-detections hold…
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