The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
A Census from JWST of Extreme Emission-line Galaxies Spanning the Epoch of Reionization in CEERS
- Kelcey Davis,
- Jonathan R. Trump,
- Raymond C. Simons,
- Elizabeth J. McGrath,
- Stephen M. Wilkins,
- Pablo Arrabal Haro,
- Micaela B. Bagley,
- Mark Dickinson,
- Vital Fernández,
- Ricardo O. Amorín,
- Bren E. Backhaus,
- Nikko J. Cleri,
- Mario Llerena,
- Samantha W. Brunker,
- Guillermo Barro,
- Laura Bisigello,
- Madisyn Brooks,
- Luca Costantin,
- Alexander de la Vega,
- Avishai Dekel,
- Steven L. Finkelstein,
- Nimish P. Hathi,
- Michaela Hirschmann,
- Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe,
- Anton M. Koekemoer,
- Ray A. Lucas,
- Casey Papovich,
- Pablo G. Pérez-González,
- Nor Pirzkal,
- Giulia Rodighiero,
- Caitlin Rose,
- L. Y. Aaron Yung,
- CEERS Collaborators
Affiliations
- Kelcey Davis
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196A Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Jonathan R. Trump
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196A Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Raymond C. Simons
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196A Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Elizabeth J. McGrath
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colby College , Waterville, ME 04901, USA
- Stephen M. Wilkins
- ORCiD
- Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex , Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK; Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy, University of Malta , Msida, MSD 2080, Malta
- Pablo Arrabal Haro
- ORCiD
- NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Micaela B. Bagley
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712-1205, USA
- Mark Dickinson
- ORCiD
- NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Vital Fernández
- ORCiD
- Michigan Institute for Data Science, University of Michigan , 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Ricardo O. Amorín
- ORCiD
- ARAID Foundation, Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) , Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Plaza San Juan 1, E–44001 Teruel, Spain; Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena , Av. Juan Cisternas 1200 Norte, La Serena 1720236, Chile
- Bren E. Backhaus
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196A Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Nikko J. Cleri
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park , PA 16802, USA; Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park , PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park , PA 16802, USA; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA; George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA
- Mario Llerena
- ORCiD
- Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena , Av. Juan Cisternas 1200 Norte, La Serena 1720236, Chile; INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , via Frascati 33, 00078 Monteporzio Catone, Italy
- Samantha W. Brunker
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196A Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Guillermo Barro
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of the Pacific , Stockton, CA 90340, USA
- Laura Bisigello
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “G.Galilei,” Universitá di Padova , Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padova, Italy; INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova , Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
- Madisyn Brooks
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, 196A Auditorium Road, Unit 3046, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269, USA
- Luca Costantin
- ORCiD
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) , CSIC-INTA, Ctra. de Ajalvir km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, E-28850 Madrid, Spain
- Alexander de la Vega
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
- Avishai Dekel
- ORCiD
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Steven L. Finkelstein
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712-1205, USA
- Nimish P. Hathi
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Michaela Hirschmann
- ORCiD
- Institute of Physics, Laboratory of Galaxy Evolution, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , Observatoire de Sauverny, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe
- ORCiD
- Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology , 84 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
- Anton M. Koekemoer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Ray A. Lucas
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Casey Papovich
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA; George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University , College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA
- Pablo G. Pérez-González
- ORCiD
- Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) , CSIC-INTA, Ctra. de Ajalvir km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, E-28850 Madrid, Spain
- Nor Pirzkal
- ORCiD
- ESA/AURA Space Telescope Science Institute , USA
- Giulia Rodighiero
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova , Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Universitá degli Studi di Padova , Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy
- Caitlin Rose
- ORCiD
- Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology , 84 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
- L. Y. Aaron Yung
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- CEERS Collaborators
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad6865
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 974,
no. 1
p. 42
Abstract
We present a sample of 1165 extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs) at 4 5000 Å. JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopic observations of a subset (34) of the photometrically selected EELGs validate our selection method: All spectroscopically observed EELGs confirm our photometric identification of extreme emission, including some cases where the spectral-energy-distribution-derived photometric redshifts are incorrect. We find that the medium-band F410M filter in CEERS is particularly efficient at identifying EELGs, both in terms of including emission lines in the filter and in correctly identifying the continuum between H β + [O iii ] and H α in the neighboring broadband filters. We present examples of EELGs that could be incorrectly classified as ultrahigh redshift ( z > 12) as a result of extreme H β + [O iii ] emission blended across the reddest photometric filters. We compare the EELGs to the broader (subextreme) galaxy population in the same redshift range and find that they are consistent with being the bluer, high-EW tail of a broader population of emission-line galaxies. The highest-EW EELGs tend to have more compact emission-line sizes than continuum sizes, suggesting that active galactic nuclei are responsible for at least some of the most extreme EELGs. The photometrically inferred emission-line ratios are consistent with interstellar medium conditions with high ionization and moderately low metallicity, consistent with previous spectroscopic studies.
Keywords
- Emission line galaxies
- Galaxies
- AGN host galaxies
- Supermassive black holes
- Starburst galaxies
- Infrared galaxies
