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arXiv · 2509.03576

How similar are narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and high-z type 1 AGN?

Marco Berton·Emilia Järvelä·Alessia Tortosa·Chiara Mazzucchelli
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Abstract

The recent observations of highly accreting supermassive black holes (SMBH) at very high redshift ($z>$4) with the James Webb Space Telescope (\textit{JWST}) allowed us to shed light for the very first time on the early evolutionary phases of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Perhaps unsurprisingly, several of the physical properties observed in these new objects, including those known as little red dots (LRDs), are closely reminiscent of the low-mass and high-Eddington AGN in the local Universe, and in particular of the class of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies. However, some differences also emerged, likely due to the radically different evolutionary path and the environment where LRDs and NLS1s live. In this work, we review the multiwavelength properties of local NLS1s and briefly compare them with type 1 AGN found at high-$z$, showing that despite some differences, the study of NLS1s can be extremely useful to better understand the extreme accretion physics of high-$z$ quasars and the early stages of AGN evolution. The goal of this review is to provide the high-z community a handbook to compare their new sources with those already known in the local Universe, and to give the low-z community a starting point to venture in the early phases of AGN evolution.

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Marco Berton, Emilia Järvelä, Alessia Tortosa, Chiara Mazzucchelli. 2025-09-03. How similar are narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and high-z type 1 AGN?. https://doi.org/10.33232/001c.169444

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