Revealing Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (ReveaLLAGN)

JWST will be the most sensitive tool ever built for studying the accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the centers of galaxies. While quasars and bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide spectacular examples of this accretion, a vast majority of galaxies have black holes accreting at much lower rates. Although these low luminosity AGN (LLAGN) are not as well studied or understood as their brighter counterparts, it is clear their inner structures differ significantly from the accretion disks in luminous AGN. JWST spectroscopy provides a unique opportunity to significantly advance our understanding of LLAGN. Our proposal focuses on getting IFU spectra from 1.7 to 28 microns for seven of the nearest LLAGN spanning four orders of magnitude in both black hole mass and accretion rate (these will also be complemented by two GTO targets). JWST's spatial resolution will enable easy separation of the AGN from the host galaxy light providing us with spectral templates of low luminosity AGN spectra in the infrared for the first time. Detailed physical modeling of both the line emission and spectral energy distributions of these LLAGN spectra will reveal the physical structure of low luminosity AGN, and how it varies with the mass and accretion rate of the SMBH. We will also use these spectral templates to empirically determine the most sensitive lines and SED features for spectroscopically and photometrically identifying LLAGN in more distant galaxies where the AGN won't be spatially resolved. ReveaLLAGN will both significantly enhance our understanding of AGN and open a new window for future AGN studies with JWST.