Islands of Electromagnetic Tranquility in Our Galactic core and Little Red Dots that Shelter Molecules and Prebiotic Chemistry

TL;DR

This work asks whether electromagnetically tranquil environments around $10^6$ solar masses black holes in the Milky Way CMZ and in high-redshift LRDs can sustain grain-surface chemistry that yields complex organic and prebiotic molecules. It compares the Milky Way CMZ, with a central BH of about $4,000,000$ solar masses, dust temperatures around $15$--$40$ K and gas temperatures around $50$--$200$ K, to LRDs where similar cold pockets may exist but metallicities are lower and direct molecular detections are challenging. The analysis emphasizes that low-energy irradiation, ice mantle chemistry, and long residence times ($10^5$--$10^6$ yr) can efficiently assemble prebiotic molecules. Evidence from the Milky Way CMZ cloud G+0.693-0.027 shows nitriles and other organics in cold, dense gas, illustrating plausible pathways for prebiotic precursors that could be delivered to forming planets. The paper concludes that, despite uncertainties and lack of direct LRD detections, these systems could have contributed to early cosmic chemical enrichment and the global inventory of life's building blocks.

Abstract

Both the Galactic Center and little red dots (LRDs) host million-solar-mass black holes within dense, cold reservoirs of molecules associated with dust grains, and are electromagnetically tranquil. These conditions enable complex molecular chemistry and may serve as natural laboratories for prebiotic genetic evolution by allowing the synthesis of organic molecules essential for life.