Labbé, I. et al. A population of red candidate massive galaxies 600 Myr after the Big Bang. Nature 616, 266–269 (2023).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Harikane, Y. et al. A JWST/NIRSpec first census of broad-line AGNs at z = 4–7: detection of 10 faint AGNs with MBH 106–108 M⊙ and their host galaxy properties. Astrophys. J. 959, 39 (2023).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Furtak, L. J. et al. A high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in a lensed AGN in the early Universe. Nature 628, 57–61 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Greene, J. E. et al. UNCOVER spectroscopy confirms the surprising ubiquity of active galactic nuclei in red sources at z > 5. Astrophys. J. 964, 39 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Matthee, J. et al. Little red dots: an abundant population of faint active galactic nuclei at z ~ 5 revealed by the EIGER and FRESCO JWST surveys. Astrophys. J. 963, 129 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Kokorev, V. et al. A census of photometrically selected little red dots at 4 < z < 9 in JWST blank fields. Astrophys. J. 968, 38 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Hviding, R. E. et al. RUBIES: a spectroscopic census of little red dots: all point sources with V-shaped continua have broad lines. Astron. Astrophys. 702, A57 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Setton, D. J. et al. Little red dots at an inflection point: ubiquitous V-shaped turnover consistently occurs at the Balmer limit. Astrophys. J. 995, 118 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Wang, B. et al. RUBIES: evolved stellar populations with extended formation histories at z ~ 7–8 in candidate massive galaxies identified with JWST/NIRSpec. Astrophys. J. Lett. 969, L13 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

D’Eugenio, F. et al. BlackTHUNDER strikes twice: Balmer-line absorption in an overmassive little red dot at z = 7.04. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 547, stag401 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Ananna, T. T., Bogdán, Á, Kovács, O. E., Natarajan, P. & Hickox, R. C. X-ray view of little red dots: do they host supermassive black holes?. Astrophys. J. Lett. 969, L18 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Yue, M. et al. Stacking X-ray observations of “little red dots”: implications for their active galactic nucleus properties. Astrophys. J. Lett. 974, L26 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Inayoshi, K. & Maiolino, R. Extremely dense gas around little red dots and high-redshift active galactic nuclei: a nonstellar origin of the Balmer break and absorption features. Astrophys. J. Lett. 980, L27 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Inayoshi, K. & Ho, L. C. A Critical evaluation of the physical nature of the little red dots. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02934-2 (2026).

Ji, X. et al. BlackTHUNDER — a non-stellar Balmer break in a black hole-dominated little red dot at z = 7.04. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 544, 3900–3935 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Chen, K., Li, Z., Inayoshi, K. & Ho, L. C. Dust budget crisis in little red dots. Astrophys. J. Lett. 994, L42 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Delvecchio, I. et al. Active galactic nuclei-heated dust revealed in “little red dots”. Astron. Astrophys. 704, A313 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Li, Z., Inayoshi, K., Chen, K., Ichikawa, K. & Ho, L. C. Little red dots: rapidly growing black holes reddened by extended dusty flows. Astrophys. J. 980, 36 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Xiao, M. et al. No [C II] or dust detection in two little red dots at zspec > 7. Astron. Astrophys. 700, A231 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Setton, D. J. et al. A confirmed deficit of hot and cold dust emission in the most luminous little red dots. Astrophys. J. Lett. 991, L10 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Zhang, C. et al. The composite spectrum of little red dots from a standard inner disk and an unstable outer disk. Nat. Astron. 10, 753–761 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Zwick, L., Tiede, C. & Mayer, L. Little red dots as self-gravitating disks accreting on supermassive stars: spectral appearance and formation pathway of the progenitors to direct collapse black holes. Astrophys. J. 1002, 7 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Chen, Y.-X. et al. Spectral appearance of self-gravitating disks powered by stellar objects: universal effective temperature in the optical continuum and application to little red dots. Astrophys. J. Lett. 1003, L46 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Kocevski, D. D. et al. The rise of faint, red active galactic nuclei at z > 4: a sample of little red dots in the JWST extragalactic legacy fields. Astrophys. J. 986, 126 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Tripodi, R. et al. Extreme properties of a compact and massive accreting black hole host in the first 500 Myr. Nat. Commun. 16, 9830 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Zhang, Y. et al. Extended components of ’little red dots’ in rest-frame optical. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02945-z (2026).

Chen, C.-H., Ho, L. C., Li, R. & Zhuang, M.-Y. The host galaxy (if any) of the little red dots. Astrophys. J. 983, 60 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Juodžbalis, I. et al. A direct black-hole mass measurement in a little red dot at high redshift. Nature 653, 1017–1021 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Rusakov, V. et al. Little red dots as young supermassive black holes in dense ionized cocoons. Nature 649, 574–579 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ma, Y. et al. UNCOVER: 404 error—models not found for the triply imaged little red dot A2744-QSO1. Astrophys. J. 981, 191 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ji, X. et al. Lord of LRDs: insights into a ‘little red dot’ with a low-ionization spectrum at z = 0.1. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 545, staf2235 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Akins, H. B. et al. COSMOS-Web: the overabundance and physical nature of “little red dots”—implications for early galaxy and SMBH assembly. Astrophys. J. 991, 37 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Carranza-Escudero, M. et al. Lonely little red dots: challenges to the active galactic nucleus nature of little red dots through their clustering and spectral energy distributions. Astrophys. J. Lett. 989, L50 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ma, Y. et al. Counting little red dots at z < 4 with ground-based surveys and spectroscopic follow-up. Astrophys. J. 1000, 59 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Inayoshi, K. Little red dots as the very first activity of black hole growth. Astrophys. J. Lett. 988, L22 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Zhang, Z., Jiang, L., Liu, W., Ho, L. C. & Inayoshi, K. JWST insights into narrow-line little red dots. Astrophys. J. 998, 170 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

de Graaff, A. et al. Little red dots host black hole stars: a unified family of gas-reddened AGN revealed by JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 551, stag1567 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Greene, J. E. & Ho, L. C. Estimating black hole masses in active galaxies using the Hα emission line. Astrophys. J. 630, 122–129 (2005).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Lin, X. et al. The discovery of little red dots in the local universe: signatures of cool gas envelopes. Astrophys. J. 997, 364 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Davis, M., Efstathiou, G., Frenk, C. S. & White, S. D. M. The evolution of large-scale structure in a universe dominated by cold dark matter. Astrophys. J. 292, 371–394 (1985).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

White, S. D. M. & Rees, M. J. Core condensation in heavy halos: a two-stage theory for galaxy formation and clustering. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 183, 341–358 (1978).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Shuntov, M. et al. Constraints on the early Universe star formation efficiency from galaxy clustering and halo modeling of Hα and [O III] emitters. Astron. Astrophys. 699, A231 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Arita, J. et al. The nature of low-luminosity AGNs discovered by JWST based on clustering analysis: progenitors of low-z quasars?. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 536, 3677–3688 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Lin, X. et al. The large-scale environments of low-luminosity AGNs at 3.9 < z < 6 and implications for their host dark matter halos from a complete NIRCam Grism Redshift Survey. Astrophys. J. 997, 61 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Eilers, A.-C. et al. EIGER. VI. The correlation function, host halo mass, and duty cycle of luminous quasars at z ≳ 6. Astrophys. J. 974, 275 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Meng, H., Zhang, H. & Ye, G. Probing the dark matter halo of high-redshift quasar from wide-field clustering analysis. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.02778 (2026).

Behroozi, P., Wechsler, R. H., Hearin, A. P. & Conroy, C. UNIVERSEMACHINE: the correlation between galaxy growth and dark matter halo assembly from z = 0–10. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 488, 3143–3194 (2019).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ferrarese, L. Beyond the bulge: a fundamental relation between supermassive black holes and dark matter halos. Astrophys. J. 578, 90–97 (2002).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Zhuang, M.-Y. & Ho, L. C. Evolutionary paths of active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies. Nat. Astron. 7, 1376–1389 (2023).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

LaChance, P. et al. From ASTRID to BRAHMA – the role of overmassive black holes in little red dots in cosmological simulations. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.13957 (2025).

LaChance, P. et al. The properties of little red dot galaxies in the ASTRID simulation. Open J. Astrophys. 9, 55493 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Sijacki, D., Springel, V. & Haehnelt, M. G. Growing the first bright quasars in cosmological simulations of structure formation. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 400, 100–122 (2009).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Khan, F. M., Davis, B. L., Macciò, A. V. & Holley-Bockelmann, K. Where have all the little red dots gone? Supermassive black hole binary dynamics and its impact on galaxy properties. Astrophys. J. Lett. 986, L1 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Pacucci, F. & Loeb, A. Cosmic outliers: low-spin halos explain the abundance, compactness, and redshift evolution of the little red dots. Astrophys. J. Lett. 989, L19 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Bezanson, R. et al. The JWST UNCOVER Treasury Survey: ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam observations before the epoch of reionization. Astrophys. J. 974, 92 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Finkelstein, S. L. et al. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away: a candidate z ~ 12 galaxy in early JWST CEERS imaging. Astrophys. J. Lett. 940, L55 (2022).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Eisenstein, D. J. et al. Overview of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 283, 6 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Dunlop, J. S. et al. PRIMER: Public Release IMaging for Extragalactic Research. JWST Proposal. Cycle 1, ID. #1837 (2021).

Valentino, F. et al. An atlas of color-selected quiescent galaxies at z > 3 in public JWST fields. Astrophys. J. 947, 20 (2023).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Chisholm, J. et al. Little red dots as globular clusters in formation. Astrophys. J. Lett. 1004, L4 (2026).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Brammer, G. grizli. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8345533 (2023).

Brammer, G. msaexp: Nirspec analysis tools. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8319596 (2023).

Brammer, G. B., van Dokkum, P. G. & Coppi, P. EAZY: a fast, public photometric redshift code. Astrophys. J. 686, 1503–1513 (2008).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Furtak, L. J. et al. UNCOVERing the extended strong lensing structures of Abell 2744 with the deepest JWST imaging. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 523, 4568–4582 (2023).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Price, S. H. et al. The UNCOVER Survey: first release of ultradeep JWST/NIRSpec PRISM spectra for ~700 galaxies from z ~ 0.3–13 in A2744. Astrophys. J. 982, 51 (2025).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ye, G., Zhang, H. & Wu, Q. Machine learning–based search of high-redshift quasars. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 275, 19 (2024).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Merlin, E. et al. ASTRODEEP-JWST: NIRCam-HST multi-band photometry and redshifts for half a million sources in six extragalactic deep fields. Astron. Astrophys. 691, A240 (2024).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

DESI Collaboration et al. The DESI Experiment Part I: science, targeting, and survey design. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1611.00036 (2016).

DESI Collaboration et al. The DESI Experiment Part II: instrument design. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1611.00037 (2016).

DESI Collaboration et al. Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. Astron. J. 171, 285 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ross, A. J. et al. The construction of large-scale structure catalogs for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 2025, 125 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Adame, A. G. et al. DESI 2024 II: sample definitions, characteristics, and two-point clustering statistics. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 2025, 017 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Dey, A. et al. Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. Astron. J. 157, 168 (2019).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Zhou, R. et al. DESI luminous red galaxy samples for cross-correlations. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 2023, 097 (2023).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Zhou, R. et al. The clustering of DESI-like luminous red galaxies using photometric redshifts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 501, 3309–3331 (2021).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Peebles, P. J. E. The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe (Princeton Univ. Press, 1980).

Landy, S. D. & Szalay, A. S. Bias and variance of angular correlation functions. Astrophys. J. 412, 64 (1993).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Davis, M. & Peebles, P. J. E. A survey of galaxy redshifts. V. The two-point position and velocity correlations. Astrophys. J. 267, 465–482 (1983).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Shen, Y. et al. Clustering of high-redshift (z > = 2.9) quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Astron. J. 133, 2222–2241 (2007).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Ross, N. P. et al. Clustering of low-redshift (z < = 2.2) quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Astrophys. J. 697, 1634–1655 (2009).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Eftekharzadeh, S. et al. Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 453, 2779–2798 (2015).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Timlin, J. D. et al. The clustering of high-redshift (2.9 ≤ z ≤ 5.1) quasars in SDSS Stripe 82. Astrophys. J. 859, 20 (2018).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

He, W. et al. Clustering of quasars in a wide luminosity range at redshift 4 with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Wide-field imaging. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 70, S33 (2018).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Arita, J. et al. Subaru high-z exploration of low-luminosity quasars (SHELLQs). XVIII. The dark matter halo mass of quasars at z 6. Astrophys. J. 954, 210 (2023).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Murray, S. G., Power, C. & Robotham, A. S. G. HMFcalc: an online tool for calculating dark matter halo mass functions. Astron. Comput. 3, 23 (2013).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Murray, S. G. et al. THEHALOMOD: an online calculator for the halo model. Astron. Comput. 36, 100487 (2021).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Tinker, J. L. et al. The large-scale bias of dark matter halos: numerical calibration and model tests. Astrophys. J. 724, 878–886 (2010).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Lewis, A., Challinor, A. & Lasenby, A. Efficient computation of cosmic microwave background anisotropies in closed Friedmann–Robertson–Walker models. Astrophys. J. 538, 473–476 (2000).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Carroll, S. M. The cosmological constant. Living Rev. Relativity 4, 1 (2001).

Article 
ADS 
MathSciNet 

Google Scholar
 

Mountrichas, G. et al. QSO-LRG two-point cross-correlation function and redshift-space distortions. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 394, 2050–2064 (2009).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Zhuang, M.-Y. et al. NEXUS: a spectroscopic census of broad-line AGNs and little red dots at 3 ≲ z ≲ 6. Astrophys. J. 999, 31 (2026).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Pan, Z. et al. NEXUS: abundance, environments, and spectral diversity of little red dots from the NIRSpec MSA sample. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1611.00037 (2026).

Behroozi, P. S., Wechsler, R. H. & Conroy, C. The average star formation histories of galaxies in dark matter halos from z = 0–8. Astrophys. J. 770, 57 (2013).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Romeo, A. B., Agertz, O. & Renaud, F. From lenticulars to blue compact dwarfs: the stellar mass fraction is regulated by disc gravitational instability. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 499, 5656–5664 (2020).

Article 
ADS 

Google Scholar
 

Shuntov, M. et al. COSMOS2020: cosmic evolution of the stellar-to-halo mass relation for central and satellite galaxies up to z ~ 5. Astron. Astrophys. 664, A61 (2022).

Article 

Google Scholar
 

Shuntov, M. et al. COSMOS-Web: stellar mass assembly in relation to dark matter halos across 0.2 < z < 12 of cosmic history. Astron. Astrophys. 695, A20 (2025).

Article 

Google Scholar