The Gas and Stellar Content of a Metal-poor Galaxy at z=8.496 as Revealed by JWST and ALMA

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Documents

  • S. Fujimoto
  • D. Espada
  • S. Gillman
  • J. Gonzalez-Lopez
  • T. R. Greve
  • Y. Harikane
  • B. Hatsukade
  • K. K. Knudsen
  • A. M. Koekemoer
  • K. Kohno
  • V. Kokorev
  • M. M. Lee
  • E. J. Nelson
  • F. Rizzo
  • R. L. Sanders
  • D. Schaerer
  • A. E. Shapley
  • F. Valentino
  • A. van der Wel
  • A. P. Vijayan
  • F. E. Bauer
  • C. R. Christiansen
  • S. N. Wilson

We present a joint analysis of the galaxy S04590 at z = 8.496 based on NIRSpec, NIRCam, and NIRISS observations obtained as part of the Early Release Observations program of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the far-infrared [C ii] 158 mu m emission line detected by dedicated Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations. We determine the physical properties of S04590 from modeling of the spectral energy distribution (SED) and through the redshifted optical nebular emission lines detected with JWST/NIRSpec. The best-fit SED model reveals a low-mass (M-? = 10(7.2)-10(8) M-?) galaxy with a low oxygen abundance of derived from the strong nebular and auroral emission lines. Assuming that [C ii] effectively traces the interstellar medium, we estimate the total gas mass of the galaxy to be M-gas = (8.0 +/- 4.0) x 10(8) M-? based on the luminosity and spatial extent of [C ii]. This yields an exceptionally high gas fraction, f(gas) = M-gas/(M-gas + M-?) ? 90%, though one still consistent with the range expected for low metallicity. We further derive the metal mass of the galaxy based on the gas mass and gas-phase metallicity, which we find to be consistent with the expected metal production from Type II supernovae. Finally, we make the first constraints on the dust-to-gas (DTG) and dust-to-metal (DTM) ratios of galaxies in the epoch of reionization at z ? 6, showing overall low mass ratios of logDTG < -3.8 and logDTM < -0.5, though they are consistent with established scaling relations and in particular with those of the local metal-poor galaxy I Zwicky 18. Our analysis highlights the synergy between ALMA and JWST in characterizing the gas, metal, and stellar content of the first generation of galaxies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number30
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume944
Issue number2
Number of pages13
ISSN2041-8205
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2023

    Research areas

  • Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts, High-redshift galaxies (734), Galaxies (573), Interstellar medium (847), Star formation (1569), Galaxy formation (595), Galaxy evolution (594), STAR-FORMING GALAXIES, C II EMISSION, MASS-METALLICITY RELATION, SIMILAR-TO 6, INTERSTELLAR-MEDIUM, MOLECULAR GAS, SCALING RELATIONS, DUST CONTENT, MAIN-SEQUENCE, REBELS SURVEY

ID: 341014656