2026ApJ...998..124N

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled a population of enigmatic, compact sources at high redshift known as “little red dots” (LRDs), whose physical nature remains a subject of intense debate. Concurrently, the rapid assembly of the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs) requires the formation of heavy seeds, for which supermassive stars (SMSs) are leading theoretical progenitors. In this work, we perform the first quantitative test of the hypothesis that LRDs are the direct observational manifestation of these primordial SMSs. We present a novel, first-principles pipeline generating synthetic spectra for a nonrotating, metal-free SMS up to 10⁶M_⊙. We establish that its luminosity (L_λ ≈ 1.7 × 10⁴⁴ erg s^–1μm^–1 at 4050 Å) provides a decisive constraint, matching prominent LRDs. Our model self-consistently reproduces their defining spectral features: the V-shaped Balmer break morphology is shown to be an intrinsic photospheric effect, while the complex line phenomenology, strong Hβ in emission with other Balmer lines in absorption arises from non-LTE effects in a single stellar atmosphere. With wind and macroturbulent broadening, we match LRD spectra at z = 7.76 and z = 3.55, including the Hβ width of MoM-BH*-1 to within 4%. We predict a luminosity-dependent observability window, ∼10⁴ yr for the most luminous systems and 10⁵-10⁶ yr if L_λ(4050 Å) is lower by 1-2 dex. These results provide a self-consistent alternative to multicomponent obscured active galactic nucleus scenarios and suggest JWST may be witnessing luminous stages of SMBH progenitors before collapse.