Another view into <i>JWST</i> -discovered X-ray weak AGNs via radiative dusty feedback

ABSTRACT James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a previously unknown population of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the early Universe. These JWST-AGN at high redshifts are characterized by a set of peculiar properties, including unusually weak X-ray emission. Here, we investigate the apparent lack of X-ray emission in the framework of the ‘AGN radiative dusty feedback’ scenario based on the effective Eddington limit for dust. We analyse how the boundary in the $N_\mathrm{H} - \lambda$ plane, defined by the column density versus the Eddington ratio, is modified as a function of the dusty gas parameters (metallicity, dust grain size, and composition). Low-metallicity gas with little dust content tends to survive against radiation pressure, and likely accumulates in the nuclear region. We suggest that such dust-poor gas can provide long-lived absorption and may lead to heavy X-ray obscuration, as observed in early JWST-AGN. The blowout versus stalling condition of the obscuring clouds indicates that higher metallicities are required to eject heavier column densities, while large columns of gas can stall in low metallicity environments. Therefore, the metallicity may play a key role in the AGN radiative dusty feedback scenario. We discuss how other peculiar properties of JWST-AGN –such as Balmer absorption features and weak radio emission – may be naturally interpreted within the same physical framework.