The population of the little red dots (LRDs) may represent a key phase of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth. A cocoon of dense excited gas is emerging as a key component to explain the most striking properties of LRDs, such as strong Balmer breaks and Balmer absorption, as well as the weak IR emission. To dissect the structure of LRDs, we analyzed new deep JWST/NIRSpec PRISM and G395H spectra of FRESCO-GN-9771, one of the most luminous known LRDs at z=5. 5. These spectra reveal a strong Balmer break, broad Balmer lines, and very narrow iii emission. We revealed a forest of optical ii lines, which we argue are emerging from a dense (n_ ̊m H =10^ 9-10 cm -3) warm layer with electron temperature T_ ̊m e K. The broad wings of Hα and Hβ have an exponential profile due to electron scattering in this same layer. The high ̊m Hα: Hβ: Hγ flux ratio of approx10. 4: 1: 0. 14 is an indicator of collisional excitation and resonant scattering dominating the Balmer line emission. A narrow Hγ component, unseen in the other two Balmer lines due to outshining by the broad components, could trace the ISM of a normal host galaxy with a star formation rate of sim5 M_⊙ yr^-1. The warm layer is mostly opaque to Balmer transitions, producing a characteristic P Cygni profile in the line centers suggesting outflowing motions. This same layer is responsible for shaping the Balmer break. The broadband spectrum can be reasonably matched by a simple photoionized slab model that dominates the łambda>1500 Å continuum and a low-mass (sim10⁸ M_⊙) galaxy that could explain the narrow iii, with only a subdominant contribution to the UV continuum. Our findings indicate that Balmer lines are not directly tracing the gas kinematics near the SMBH and that the BH mass scale is likely much lower than virial indicators suggest.
Torralba et al. (Tue,) studied this question.