The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
Early Results from GLASS–JWST. XXI. Rapid Asembly of a Galaxy at z = 6.23 Revealed by Its C/O Abundance
- Tucker Jones,
- Ryan Sanders,
- Yuguang Chen,
- Xin Wang,
- Takahiro Morishita,
- Guido Roberts-Borsani,
- Tommaso Treu,
- Alan Dressler,
- Emiliano Merlin,
- Diego Paris,
- Paola Santini,
- Pietro Bergamini,
- A. Henry,
- Erin Huntzinger,
- Themiya Nanayakkara,
- Kristan Boyett,
- Marusa Bradac,
- Gabriel Brammer,
- Antonello Calabró,
- Karl Glazebrook,
- Kathryn Grasha,
- Sara Mascia,
- Laura Pentericci,
- Michele Trenti,
- Benedetta Vulcani
Affiliations
- Tucker Jones
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA ; [email protected]
- Ryan Sanders
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA ; [email protected]
- Yuguang Chen
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA ; [email protected]
- Xin Wang
- ORCiD
- School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) , Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China; National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China; Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University , Beijing 102206, People’s Republic of China
- Takahiro Morishita
- ORCiD
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center , Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Guido Roberts-Borsani
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Tommaso Treu
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Alan Dressler
- ORCiD
- The Observatories, The Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Emiliano Merlin
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Diego Paris
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Paola Santini
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- 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
- A. Henry
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Center for Astrophysical Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Erin Huntzinger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA ; [email protected]
- Themiya Nanayakkara
- ORCiD
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
- Kristan Boyett
- ORCiD
- School of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville 3010, VIC, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
- Marusa Bradac
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis , 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA ; [email protected]; University of Ljubljana , Department of Mathematics and Physics, Jadranska ulica 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Gabriel Brammer
- ORCiD
- Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) , Denmark; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
- Antonello Calabró
- 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 , PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia
- Kathryn Grasha
- ORCiD
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia; Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia
- Sara Mascia
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Laura Pentericci
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
- Michele Trenti
- ORCiD
- School of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville 3010, VIC, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
- Benedetta Vulcani
- ORCiD
- INAF- Osservatorio astronomico di Padova , Vicolo Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acd938
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 951,
no. 1
p. L17
Abstract
The abundance of carbon relative to oxygen (C/O) is a promising probe of star formation history in the early universe, as the ratio changes with time due to production of these elements by different nucleosynthesis pathways. We present a measurement of $\mathrm{log}({\rm{C}}/{\rm{O}})=-1.01\pm 0.12$ (stat) ±0.15 (sys) in a z = 6.23 galaxy observed as part of the GLASS–JWST Early Release Science Program. Notably, we achieve good precision thanks to the detection of the rest-frame ultraviolet O iii ], C iii ], and C iv emission lines delivered by JWST/NIRSpec. The C/O abundance is ∼0.8 dex lower than the solar value and is consistent with the expected yield from core-collapse supernovae, indicating that longer-lived intermediate-mass stars have not fully contributed to carbon enrichment. This in turn implies rapid buildup of a young stellar population with age ≲100 Myr in a galaxy seen ∼900 Myr after the big bang. Our chemical abundance analysis is consistent with spectral energy distribution modeling of JWST/NIRCam photometric data, which indicates a current stellar mass $\mathrm{log}\,{M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot }={8.4}_{-0.2}^{+0.4}$ and specific star formation rate ≃20 Gyr ^−1 . These results showcase the value of chemical abundances and C/O in particular to study the earliest stages of galaxy assembly.
Keywords
