The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
Early Results from GLASS-JWST. IX. First Spectroscopic Confirmation of Low-mass Quiescent Galaxies at z > 2 with NIRISS
- Danilo Marchesini,
- Gabriel Brammer,
- Takahiro Morishita,
- Pietro Bergamini,
- Xin Wang,
- Marusa Bradac,
- Guido Roberts-Borsani,
- Victoria Strait,
- Tommaso Treu,
- Adriano Fontana,
- Tucker Jones,
- Paola Santini,
- Benedetta Vulcani,
- Ana Acebron,
- Antonello Calabrò,
- Marco Castellano,
- Karl Glazebrook,
- Claudio Grillo,
- Amata Mercurio,
- Themiya Nanayakkara,
- Piero Rosati,
- Chanita Tubthong,
- Eros Vanzella
Affiliations
- Danilo Marchesini
- ORCiD
- Physics and Astronomy Department, Tufts University , 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA ; [email protected]
- Gabriel Brammer
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Takahiro Morishita
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , MC 314-6, 1200 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Pietro Bergamini
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano , Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy; INAF—OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
- Xin Wang
- ORCiD
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center , Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Marusa Bradac
- ORCiD
- Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana , Jadranska ulica 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA
- Guido Roberts-Borsani
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles , 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Victoria Strait
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Tommaso Treu
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles , 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Adriano Fontana
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Tucker Jones
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA
- Paola Santini
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Benedetta Vulcani
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova , vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
- Ana Acebron
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano , Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy; INAF—IASF Milano , via A. Corti 12, I-20133 Milano, Italy
- Antonello Calabrò
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Marco Castellano
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Karl Glazebrook
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
- Claudio Grillo
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano , Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy; INAF—IASF Milano , via A. Corti 12, I-20133 Milano, Italy
- Amata Mercurio
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte , Via Moiariello 16, I-80131 Napoli, Italy; Dipartimento di Fisica "E.R. Caianiello", Università degli Studi di Salerno , Via Giovanni Paolo II, I-84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy
- Themiya Nanayakkara
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
- Piero Rosati
- ORCiD
- INAF—OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy; Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara , Via Saragat 1, I-44122 Ferrara, Italy
- Chanita Tubthong
- ORCiD
- Physics and Astronomy Department, Tufts University , 574 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA ; [email protected]
- Eros Vanzella
- ORCiD
- INAF—OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acaaac
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 942,
no. 2
p. L25
Abstract
How passive galaxies form, and the physical mechanisms which prevent star formation over long timescales, are some of the most outstanding questions in understanding galaxy evolution. The properties of quiescent galaxies over cosmic time provide crucial information to identify the quenching mechanisms. Passive galaxies have been confirmed and studied out to z ∼ 4, but all of these studies have been limited to massive systems (mostly with $\mathrm{log}({M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot })\gt 10.8$ ). Using JWST-NIRISS grism slitless spectroscopic data from the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science program, we present spectroscopic confirmation of two quiescent galaxies at ${z}_{\mathrm{spec}}={2.650}_{-0.006}^{+0.004}$ and ${z}_{\mathrm{spec}}={2.433}_{-0.016}^{+0.032}$ (3 σ errors) with stellar masses of $\mathrm{log}({M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot })={10.59}_{-0.05}^{+0.11}$ and $\mathrm{log}({M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot })={10.07}_{-0.03}^{+0.06}$ (corrected for magnification factors of μ = 2.0 and μ = 2.1, respectively). The latter represents the first spectroscopic confirmation of the existence of low-mass quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon, showcasing the power of JWST to identify and characterize this enigmatic population.
Keywords
