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Pascal A. Oesch

Publications and source records attributed to Pascal A. Oesch.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

A First Look at Spatially Resolved Star Formation at $4.8<z<6.5$ with JWST FRESCO NIRCam Slitless Spectroscopy

We present the first results on the spatial distribution of star formation in 454 star-forming galaxies at $4.8<z<6.5$ using H-Alpha emission-line maps and F444W imaging tracing the stellar continuum from JWST FRESCO NIRCam Slitless Spectroscopy. Star-forming galaxies with stellar masses $6.8\leq$log($M_{*}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$)$<11.1$ have positive H-Alpha equivalent width profiles, providing direct evidence for the inside-out growth of galaxies just after the epoch of reionisation. GALFIT is used to calculate half-light radii, $R_{\mathrm{eff}}$ and central surface densities within 1 kiloparsec, $Σ_{1\mathrm{kpc}}$. At a fixed stellar mass of log$(M_{*}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot})=9.5$, $Σ_{1\mathrm{kpc, H}α}$ is $1.04\pm0.05$ times higher than $Σ_{1\mathrm{kpc, C}}$, $R_{\mathrm{eff, H}α}$ is $1.18\pm0.03$ times larger than $R_{\mathrm{eff, C}}$ and both $R_{\mathrm{eff}}$ measurements are less than 1 kiloparsec. These measurements suggest the rapid build-up of compact bulges just after the epoch of reionisation. By comparing to work done at lower redshifts with HST WFC3 Slitless Spectroscopy as part of the 3D-HST ($z=1$) and CLEAR ($z=0.5$) surveys, we find that $R_{\mathrm{eff}}(z)$ evolves at the same pace for H$α$ and the continuum, but $Σ_{1\mathrm{kpc}}(z)$ evolves faster for H$α$. As a function of the Hubble parameter, $\frac{R_{\mathrm{eff, H}α}}{R_{\mathrm{eff, C}}}=1.1h(z)$ and $\frac{Σ_{1\mathrm{kpc,H}α}}{Σ_{1\mathrm{kpc,C}}}=h(z)^{1.3}$. These functions suggest that the inside-out growth of the disk dominates the inside-out growth of the bulge towards lower redshifts. This is supported by the redshift evolution in EW(H$α$) profiles, where there is rapid increase in EW(H$α$) with radius within the half-light radius at $z=5.3$ but only significantly increasing EW(H$α$) with radius in the outer disk at $z=0.5$.

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A high black hole to host mass ratio in a lensed AGN in the early Universe

Early JWST observations have uncovered a new population of red sources that might represent a previously overlooked phase of supermassive black hole growth (Kocevski et al. 2023; Matthee et al. 2023, Labbé et al. 2023). One of the most intriguing examples is an extremely red, point-like object that was found to be triply-imaged by the strong lensing (SL) cluster Abell 2744 (Furtak et al. 2023). Here we present deep JWST/NIRSpec observations of this object, Abell2744-QSO1. The spectroscopy confirms that the three images are of the same object, and that it is a highly reddened ($A_V\simeq3$) broad emission-line Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) at a redshift of $z_{\mathrm{spec}}=7.0451\pm0.0005$. From the width of H$β$ ($\mathrm{FWHM}=2800\pm250\,\frac{\mathrm{km}}{\mathrm{s}}$) we derive a black hole mass of $M_{\mathrm{BH}}=4_{-1}^{+2}\times10^7\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. We infer a very high ratio of black hole to galaxy mass of at least 3%, an order of magnitude more than is seen in local galaxies (Bennert et al. 2011), and possibly as high as 100%. The lack of strong metal lines in the spectrum together with the high bolometric luminosity ($L_{\mathrm{bol}}=(1.1\pm0.3)\times10^{45}\,\frac{\mathrm{erg}}{\mathrm{s}}$) indicate that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit. The rapid growth and high black hole to galaxy mass ratio of A2744-QSO1 suggest that it may represent the missing link between black hole seeds (Volonteri et al. 2021) and the first luminous quasars (Fan et al. 2022).

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Modelling LAEs in the Epoch of Reionization with OBELISK

Lya emitters (LAEs) are particularly useful objects for the study of the Epoch of Reionization. Lya profiles can be used to estimate the amount of ionizing photons that are able to escape the galaxies, and therefore to understand what objects contributed to reionization. However, Lya is a resonant line and its complex radiative transfer effects make the interpretation of the line challenging and require the use of appropriate radiative transfer methods for anything but the simplest gas distributions. With this work we aim to study the properties of simulated LAEs, and the robustness of these inferred properties under a change in the dust model. We also explore the Lyman Continuum (LyC) escape fraction of these galaxies and compare our results with observationally calibrated methods to infer this quantity from the Lya spectrum. We use the radiative transfer code RASCAS to perform synthetic observations of 13 flux-selected galaxies from the Obelisk simulation at redshift z = 6, towards the end of the Epoch of Reionization. Each galaxy was observed in Lya, ionizing and non-ionizing continuum from 48 different viewing angles. We show that the Lya profiles emitted from a galaxy present large variations with a change in viewing angle and that the relation between peak separation and Lya escape fraction is not as strong as previously found, as we find lines of sight with both low peak separation and low escape fraction, due to their dust content. We also show that the properties of the Lya line are reasonably robust under a change in dust model. Lastly, we compare the LyC escape fractions we derive from the simulation to three observationally calibrated methods of inferring this quantity. We determine that none of these relations reproduce the scatter that we find in our sample, and that high escape fraction lines of sight have both low peak separation and low dust extinction in the UV.

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FRESCO: The Paschen-$α$ Star Forming Sequence at Cosmic Noon

We present results from the JWST First Reionization Epoch Spectroscopically Complete Observations survey (FRESCO) on the star forming sequence of galaxies at $1.0 9.5 M_\odot$ that are lower than found in many earlier studies by up to 0.6 dex, but in good agreement with recent results obtained with the Prospector fitting framework. The difference log(SFR(Pa$α$)-SFR(Prospector)) is -0.09 $\pm$ 0.04 dex at $10^{10-11} M_\odot$. We also measure the empirical relation between Paschen-$α$ luminosity and rest-frame H band magnitude and find that the scatter is only 0.04 dex lower than that of the SFR-M* relation and is much lower than the systematic differences among relations in the literature due to various methods of converting observed measurements to physical properties. We additionally identify examples of sources -- that, with standard cutoffs via the UVJ diagram, would be deemed quiescent -- with significant, typically extended, Paschen-$α$ emission. Our results may be indicative of the potential unification of methods used to derive the star forming sequence with careful selection of star forming galaxies and independent star formation rate and stellar mass indicators.

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A massive, neutral gas reservoir permeating a galaxy proto-cluster after the reionization era

Galaxy clusters are the most massive, gravitationally-bound structures in the Universe, emerging through hierarchical structure formation of large-scale dark matter and baryon overdensities. Early galaxy ``proto-clusters'' are believed to be important physical drivers of the overall cosmic star-formation rate density and serve as ``hotspots'' for the reionization of the intergalactic medium. Our understanding of the formation of these structures at the earliest cosmic epochs is, however, limited to sparse observations of their galaxy members, or based on phenomenological models and cosmological simulations. Here we report the detection of a massive neutral, atomic hydrogen (HI) gas reservoir permeating a galaxy proto-cluster at redshift $z=5.4$, observed one billion years after the Big Bang. The presence of this cold gas is revealed by strong damped Lyman-$α$ absorption features observed in several background galaxy spectra taken with JWST/NIRSpec in close on-sky projection. While overall the sightlines probe a large range in HI column densities, $N_{\rm HI} = 10^{21.7}-10^{23.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, they are similar across nearby sightlines, demonstrating that they probe the same dense, neutral gas. This observation of a massive, large-scale overdensity of cold neutral gas challenges current large-scale cosmological simulations and has strong implications for the reionization topology of the Universe.

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RUBIES: Evolved Stellar Populations with Extended Formation Histories at $z \sim 7-8$ in Candidate Massive Galaxies Identified with JWST/NIRSpec

The identification of red, apparently massive galaxies at $z>7$ in early JWST photometry suggests a strongly accelerated timeline compared to standard models of galaxy growth. A major uncertainty in the interpretation is whether the red colors are caused by evolved stellar populations, dust, or other effects such as emission lines or AGN. Here we show that three of the massive galaxy candidates at $z=6.7-8.4$ have prominent Balmer breaks in JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy from the RUBIES program. The Balmer breaks demonstrate unambiguously that stellar emission dominates at $λ_{\rm rest} = 0.4\,μ$m, and require formation histories extending hundreds of Myr into the past in galaxies only 600--800 Myr after the Big Bang. Two of the three galaxies also show broad Balmer lines, with H$β$ FWHM $>2500~{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$, suggesting that dust-reddened AGN contribute to, or even dominate, the SEDs of these galaxies at $λ_{\rm rest}\gtrsim 0.6\,μ$m. All three galaxies have relatively narrow [O III] lines, seemingly ruling out a high-mass interpretation if the lines arise in dynamically-relaxed, inclined disks. Yet, the inferred masses also remain highly uncertain. We model the high-quality spectra using Prospector to decompose the continuum into stellar and AGN components, and explore limiting cases in stellar/AGN contribution. This produces a wide range of possible stellar masses, spanning $M_\star \sim 10^9 - 10^{11}\,{\rm M_{\odot}}$. Nevertheless, all fits suggest a very early and rapid formation, most of which follow with a truncation in star formation. Potential origins and evolutionary tracks for these objects are discussed, from the cores of massive galaxies to low-mass galaxies with over-massive black holes. Intriguingly, we find all of these explanations to be incomplete; deeper and redder data are needed to understand the physics of these systems.

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The First Billion Years, According to JWST

With stunning clarity, JWST has revealed the Universe's first billion years. The scientific community is analyzing a wealth of JWST imaging and spectroscopic data from that era, and is in the process of rewriting the astronomy textbooks. Here, 1.5 years into the JWST science mission, we provide a snapshot of the great progress made towards understanding the initial chapters of our cosmic history. We highlight discoveries and breakthroughs, topics and issues that are not yet understood, and questions that will be addressed in the coming years, as JWST continues its revolutionary observations of the Early Universe. While this compendium is written by a small number of authors, invited to ISSI Bern in March 2024 as part of the 2024 ISSI Breakthrough Workshop, we acknowledge the work of a large community that is advancing our collective understanding of the evolution of the Early Universe.

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A massive galaxy that formed its stars at $z \sim 11$

The formation of galaxies by gradual hierarchical co-assembly of baryons and cold dark matter halos is a fundamental paradigm underpinning modern astrophysics and predicts a strong decline in the number of massive galaxies at early cosmic times. Extremely massive quiescent galaxies (stellar masses $>10^{11}$ M$_\odot$) have now been observed as early as 1-2 billions years after the Big Bang; these are extremely constraining on theoretical models as they form 300-500 Myr earlier and only some models can form massive galaxies this early. Here we report on the spectroscopic observations with the James Webb Space Telescope of a massive quiescent galaxy ZF-UDS-7329 at redshift 3.205 $\pm$ 0.005 that eluded deep ground-based spectrscopy, is significantly redder than typical and whose spectrum reveals features typical of much older stellar populations. Detailed modelling shows the stellar population formed around 1.5 billion years earlier in time (z ~ 11) at an epoch when dark matter halos of sufficient hosting mass have not yet assembled in the standard scenario. This observation may point to the presence of undetected populations of early galaxies and the possibility of significant gaps in our understanding of early stellar populations, galaxy formation and/or the nature of dark matter.

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Medium Bands, Mega Science: a JWST/NIRCam Medium-Band Imaging Survey of Abell 2744

In this paper, we describe the "Medium Bands, Mega Science" JWST Cycle 2 survey (JWST-GO-4111) and demonstrate the power of these data to reveal both the spatially-integrated and spatially-resolved properties of galaxies from the local universe to the era of cosmic dawn. Executed in November 2023, MegaScience obtained ~30 arcmin^2 of deep multiband NIRCam imaging centered on the z~0.3 Abell 2744 cluster, including eleven medium-band filters and the two shortest-wavelength broad-band filters, F070W and F090W. Together, MegaScience and the UNCOVER Cycle 1 treasury program provide a complete set of deep (~28-30 mag) images in all NIRCam medium- and broad-band filters. This unique dataset allows us to precisely constrain photometric redshifts, map stellar populations and dust attenuation for large samples of distant galaxies, and examine the connection between galaxy structures and formation histories. MegaScience also includes ~17 arcmin^2 of NIRISS parallel imaging in two broad-band and four medium-band filters from 0.9-4.8um, expanding the footprint where robust spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is possible. We provide example SEDs and multi-band cutouts at a variety of redshifts, and use a catalog of JWST spectroscopic redshifts to show that MegaScience improves both the scatter and catastrophic outlier rate of photometric redshifts by factors of 2-3. Additionally, we demonstrate the spatially-resolved science enabled by MegaScience by presenting maps of the [OIII] line emission and continuum emission in three spectroscopically-confirmed z>6 galaxies. We show that line emission in reionization-era galaxies can be clumpy, extended, and spatially offset from continuum emission, implying that galaxy assembly histories are complex even at these early epochs. We publicly release fully reduced mosaics and photometric catalogs for both the NIRCam primary and NIRISS parallel fields.

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The UNCOVER Survey: A First-look HST+JWST Catalog of Galaxy Redshifts and Stellar Population Properties Spanning $0.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 15$

The recent UNCOVER survey with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) exploits the nearby cluster Abell 2744 to create the deepest view of our universe to date by leveraging strong gravitational lensing. In this work, we perform photometric fitting of more than 50,000 robustly detected sources out to $z \sim 15$. We show the redshift evolution of stellar ages, star formation rates, and rest-frame colors across the full range of $0.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 15$. The galaxy properties are inferred using the Prospector Bayesian inference framework using informative Prospector-$β$ priors on masses and star formation histories to produce joint redshift and stellar population posteriors, and additionally lensing magnification is performed on-the-fly to ensure consistency with the scale-dependent priors. We show that this approach produces excellent photometric redshifts with $σ_{\rm NMAD} \sim 0.03$, of a similar quality to the established photometric redshift code EAzY. In line with the open-source scientific objective of the Treasury survey, we publicly release the stellar population catalog with this paper, derived from the photometric catalog adapting aperture sizes based on source profiles. This release includes posterior moments, maximum-likelihood spectra, star-formation histories, and full posterior distributions, offering a rich data set to explore the processes governing galaxy formation and evolution over a parameter space now accessible by JWST.

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A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3 < z < 4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy

Here we present a sample of 12 massive quiescent galaxy candidates at z~3-4 observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These galaxies were pre-selected from the Hubble Space Telescope imaging and 10 of our sources were unable to be spectroscopically confirmed by ground based spectroscopy. By combining spectroscopic data from NIRSpec with multi-wavelength imaging data from the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), we analyse their stellar populations and their formation histories. We find that all of our galaxies classify as quiescent based on the reconstruction of their star formation histories but show a variety of quenching timescales and ages. All our galaxies are massive ($\sim0.1-1.2 \times 10^{11} M\odot$), with masses comparable to massive galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the oldest galaxy in our sample formed $\sim1.0\times10^{11} M\odot$ of mass within the first few hundred million years of the Universe and has been quenched for more than a billion years by the time of observation at z$\sim$3.2 ($\sim$2 billion years after the Big Bang). Our results point to very early formation of massive galaxies requiring a high conversion rate of baryons to stars in the early Universe.

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Little Red Dots: an abundant population of faint AGN at z~5 revealed by the EIGER and FRESCO JWST surveys

Characterising the prevalence and properties of faint active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the early Universe is key for understanding the formation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and determining their role in cosmic reionization. We perform a spectroscopic search for broad H$α$ emitters at $z\approx4-6$ using deep JWST/NIRCam imaging and wide field slitless spectroscopy from the EIGER and FRESCO surveys. We identify 20 H$α$ lines at $z=4.2-5.5$ that have broad components with line widths from $\sim1200-3700$ km s$^{-1}$, contributing $\sim30-90$ % of the total line flux. We interpret these broad components as being powered by accretion onto SMBHs with implied masses $\sim10^{7-8}$ M$_{\odot}$. In the UV luminosity range M$_{\rm UV}=-21$ to $-18$, we measure number densities of $\approx10^{-5}$ cMpc$^{-3}$. This is an order of magnitude higher than expected from extrapolating quasar UV luminosity functions. Yet, such AGN are found in only $<1$ % of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim5$. The SMBH mass function agrees with large cosmological simulations. In two objects we detect narrow red- and blue-shifted H$α$ absorption indicative, respectively, of dense gas fueling SMBH growth and outflows. We may be witnessing early AGN feedback that will clear dust-free pathways through which more massive blue quasars are seen. We uncover a strong correlation between reddening and the fraction of total galaxy luminosity arising from faint AGN. This implies that early SMBH growth is highly obscured and that faint AGN are only minor contributors to cosmic reionization.

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A Size Estimate for Galaxy GN-z11

GN-z11 is the highest redshift galaxy spectroscopically confirmed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Previous measurements of the effective radius of GN-z11 utilized galfit, which is not optimized to measure structural parameters for such a faint, distant object. Using a new software program called forcepho on HST data for the first time, we derive a size from images in the F160W band obtained both from the complete CANDELS survey and additional midcycle observations in order to contribute to the knowledge base on the size evolution, size-luminosity, and size-mass relation of early galaxies. We find a half-light radius mean of 0''.036 \(\pm\) 0''.006 corresponding to a physical size of 0.15 \(\pm\) 0.025 kpc. This size, smaller than the point spread function, is dramatically smaller than previous estimates with shallower HST data using galfit but consistent with recent measurements using forcepho on new JWST data arXiv:2302.07234. Such a small size, combined with the JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopic observations arXiv:2305.12492, suggests that GN-z11's high luminosity is dominated by an AGN.

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FRESCO: An extended, massive, rapidly rotating galaxy at z=5.3

With the remarkable sensitivity and resolution of JWST in the infrared, measuring rest-optical kinematics of galaxies at $z>5$ has become possible for the first time. This study pilots a new method for measuring galaxy dynamics for highly multiplexed, unbiased samples by combining FRESCO NIRCam grism spectroscopy and JADES medium-band imaging. Here we present one of the first JWST kinematic measurements for a galaxy at $z>5$. We find a significant velocity gradient, which, if interpreted as rotation yields $V_{rot} = 240\pm50$km/s and we hence refer to this galaxy as Twister-z5. With a rest-frame optical effective radius of $r_e=2.25$kpc, the high rotation velocity in this galaxy is not due to a compact size as may be expected in the early universe but rather a high total mass, ${\rm log(M}_{dyn}/{\rm M}_\odot)=11.0\pm0.2$. This is a factor of roughly 4x higher than the stellar mass within the effective radius. We also observe that the radial H$α$ equivalent width profile and the specific star formation rate map from resolved stellar population modeling is centrally depressed by a factor of $\sim1.5$ from the center to $r_e$. Combined with the morphology of the line-emitting gas in comparison to the continuum, this centrally suppressed star formation is consistent with a star-forming disk surrounding a bulge growing inside-out. While large, rapidly rotating disks are common to z~2, the existence of one after only 1Gyr of cosmic time, shown for the first time in ionized gas, adds to the growing evidence that some galaxies matured earlier than expected in the history of the universe.

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UNCOVER: Illuminating the Early Universe -- JWST/NIRSpec Confirmation of $z > 12$ Galaxies

Observations of high-redshift galaxies provide a critical direct test to the theories of early galaxy formation, yet to date, only three have been spectroscopically confirmed at $z>12$. Due to strong gravitational lensing over a wide area, the galaxy cluster field A2744 is ideal for searching for the earliest galaxies. Here we present JWST/NIRSpec observations of two galaxies: a robust detection at $z_{\rm spec} = 12.393^{+0.004}_{-0.001}$, and a plausible candidate at $z_{\rm spec} = 13.079^{+0.013}_{-0.001}$. The galaxies are discovered in JWST/NIRCam imaging and their distances are inferred with JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy, all from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey. Detailed stellar population modeling using JWST NIRCam and NIRSpec data corroborates the primeval characteristics of these galaxies: low mass ($\sim 10^8~{\rm M_\odot}$), young, rapidly-assembling, metal-poor, and star-forming. Interestingly, both galaxies are spatially resolved, having lensing-corrected rest-UV effective radii on the order of 300-400 pc, which are notably larger than other spectroscopically confirmed systems at similar redshifts. The observed dynamic range of $z \gtrsim 10$ sizes spans over 1 order of magnitude, implying a significant scatter in the size-mass relation at early times. Deep into the epoch of reionization, these discoveries elucidate the emergence of the first galaxies.

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The UNCOVER Survey: A first-look HST+JWST catalog of 60,000 galaxies near Abell 2744 and beyond

In November 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) returned deep near-infrared images of Abell 2744 -- a powerful lensing cluster capable of magnifying distant, incipient galaxies beyond it. Together with the existing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, this publicly available dataset opens a fundamentally new discovery space to understand the remaining mysteries of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. In this work, we detect and measure some 60,000 objects across the 49 arcmin$^2$ JWST footprint down to a $5\,σ$ limiting magnitude of $\sim$30 mag in 0.32" apertures. Photometry is performed using circular apertures on images matched to the point spread function of the reddest NIRCam broad band, F444W, and cleaned of bright cluster galaxies and the related intra-cluster light. To give an impression of the photometric performance, we measure photometric redshifts and achieve a $σ_{\rm NMAD}\approx0.03$ based on known, but relatively small, spectroscopic samples. With this paper, we publicly release our HST and JWST PSF-matched photometric catalog with optimally assigned aperture sizes for easy use, along with single aperture catalogs, photometric redshifts, rest-frame colors, and individual magnification estimates. These catalogs will set the stage for efficient and deep spectroscopic follow-up of some of the first JWST-selected samples in Summer 2023.

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UNCOVER: The growth of the first massive black holes from JWST/NIRSpec -- spectroscopic redshift confirmation of an X-ray luminous AGN at z=10.1

The James Webb Space Telescope is now detecting early black holes (BHs) as they transition from "seeds" to supermassive BHs. Recently Bogdan et al. (2023) reported the detection of an X-ray luminous supermassive BH, UHZ-1, with a photometric redshift at $z > 10$. Such an extreme source at this very high redshift provides new insights on seeding and growth models for BHs given the short time available for formation and growth. Harnessing the exquisite sensitivity of JWST/NIRSpec, here we report the spectroscopic confirmation of UHZ-1 at $z = 10.073 \pm 0.002$. We find that the NIRSpec/Prism spectrum is typical of recently discovered z~10 galaxies, characterized primarily by star-formation features. We see no clear evidence of the powerful X-ray source in the rest-frame UV/optical spectrum, which may suggest heavy obscuration of the central BH, in line with the Compton-thick column density measured in the X-rays. We perform a stellar population fit simultaneously to the new NIRSpec spectroscopy and previously available photometry. The fit yields a stellar mass estimate for the host galaxy that is significantly better constrained than prior photometric estimates ($M_*\sim 1.4^{+0.3}_{-0.4} \times 10^8 M_\odot$). Given the predicted BH mass ($M_{\rm BH}\sim10^7-10^8 M_\odot$), the resulting ratio of $M_{\rm BH}/M_*$ remains two to three orders of magnitude higher than local values, thus lending support to the heavy seeding channel for the formation of supermassive BHs within the first billion years of cosmic evolution.

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UNCOVER spectroscopy confirms a surprising ubiquity of AGN in red galaxies at $z>5$

JWST is revealing a new population of dust-reddened broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) at redshifts $z\gtrsim5$. Here we present deep NIRSpec/Prism spectroscopy from the Cycle 1 Treasury program UNCOVER of 15 AGN candidates selected to be compact, with red continua in the rest-frame optical but with blue slopes in the UV. From NIRCam photometry alone, they could have been dominated by dusty star formation or AGN. Here we show that the majority of the compact red sources in UNCOVER are dust-reddened AGN: $60\%$ show definitive evidence for broad-line H$α$ with FWHM$\, >2000$ km/s, for $20\%$ current data are inconclusive, and $20\%$ are brown dwarf stars. We propose an updated photometric criterion to select red $z>5$ AGN that excludes brown dwarfs and is expected to yield $>80\%$ AGN. Remarkably, among all $z_{\rm phot}>5$ galaxies with F277W$-$F444W$>1$ in UNCOVER at least $33\%$ are AGN regardless of compactness, climbing to at least $80\%$ AGN for sources with F277W$-$F444W$>1.6$. The confirmed AGN have black hole masses of $10^7-10^9$ M$_{\odot}$. While their UV-luminosities ($-16>M_{\rm UV}>-20$ AB mag) are low compared to UV-selected AGN at these epochs, consistent with percent-level scattered AGN light or low levels of unobscured star formation, the inferred bolometric luminosities are typical of $10^7-10^9$ M$_{\odot}$ black holes radiating at $\sim 10-40\%$ of Eddington. The number densities are surprisingly high at $\sim10^{-5}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ mag$^{-1}$, 100 times more common than the faintest UV-selected quasars, while accounting for $\sim1\%$ of the UV-selected galaxies. While their UV-faintness suggest they may not contribute strongly to reionization, their ubiquity poses challenges to models of black hole growth.

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