Abstract
We conduct a comprehensive study on dropout galaxy candidates at
z
∼ 9–16 using the first 90 arcmin
2
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Camera images taken by the early release ...observations (ERO) and early release science programs. With the JWST simulation images, we find that a number of foreground interlopers are selected with a weak photo-
z
determination (Δ
χ
2
> 4). We thus carefully apply a secure photo
-z
selection criterion (Δ
χ
2
> 9) and conventional color criteria with confirmations of the ERO Near Infrared Spectrograph spectroscopic redshifts, and obtain a total of 23 dropout galaxies at
z
∼ 9–16, including two candidates at
z
phot
=
16.25
−
0.46
+
0.24
and
16.41
−
0.55
+
0.66
. We perform thorough comparisons of dropout galaxies found in our work with recent JWST studies, and conclude that our galaxy sample is reliable enough for statistical analyses. We derive the UV luminosity functions at
z
∼ 9–16, and confirm that our UV luminosity functions at
z
∼ 9 and 12 agree with those determined by other Hubble Space Telescope and JWST studies. The cosmic star formation rate (SFR) density decreases from
z
∼ 9 to 12, and perhaps to 16, but the densities at
z
∼ 12–16 are higher than the constant star formation efficiency model. Interestingly, there are six bright galaxy candidates at
z
∼ 10–16 with
M
UV
< −19.5 mag and
M
*
∼ 10
8−9
M
⊙
. Because a majority (∼80%) of these galaxies show no signatures of active galactic nuclei in their morphologies, the high cosmic SFR densities and the existence of these UV-luminous galaxies are explained by the lack of suppression of star formation by the UV background radiation at the pre-reionization epoch and/or an efficient UV radiation production by a top-heavy initial mass function with Population III–like star formation.
Abstract
We present the evolution of the mass–metallicity (MZ) relation at
z
= 4–10 derived with 135 galaxies identified in JWST/NIRSpec data taken from the three major public spectroscopy programs ...of ERO, GLASS, and CEERS. Because there are many discrepancies between the flux measurements reported by the early ERO studies, we first establish our NIRSpec data reduction procedure for reliable emission-line flux measurements and errors, successfully explaining Balmer decrements with no statistical tensions thorough comparisons with the early ERO studies. Applying the reduction procedure to the 135 galaxies, we obtain emission-line fluxes for physical property measurements. We confirm that 10 out of the 135 galaxies with O
iii
λ
4363 lines have electron temperatures of ≃(1.1–2.3) × 10
4
K, similar to lower-
z
star-forming galaxies, which can be explained by heating by young massive stars. We derive the metallicities of the 10 galaxies by a direct method and the rest of the galaxies with strong lines using the metallicity calibrations of Nakajima et al. applicable for these low-mass metal-poor galaxies, anchoring the metallicities with the direct-method measurements. We thus obtain the MZ relation and star formation rate (SFR)–MZ relation over
z
= 4–10. We find that there is a small evolution of the MZ relation from
z
∼ 2–3 to
z
= 4–10, while interestingly the SFR–MZ relation shows no evolution up to
z
∼ 8 but a significant decrease at
z
> 8 beyond the errors This SFR–MZ relation decrease at
z
> 8 may suggest a break of the metallicity equilibrium state via star formation, inflow, and outflow, while further statistical and local-baseline studies are needed for a conclusion.
We present the first statistical sample of faint type 1 AGNs at z > 4 identified by JWST/NIRSpec deep spectroscopy. Among the 185 galaxies at z _spec = 3.8–8.9 confirmed with NIRSpec, our systematic ...search for broad-line emission reveals 10 type 1 AGNs at z = 4.015–6.936 whose broad component is only seen in the permitted H α line and not in the forbidden O iii λ 5007 line that is detected with greater significance than H α . The broad H α line widths of FWHM ≃ 1000–6000 km s ^−1 suggest that the AGNs have low-mass black holes with M _BH ∼ 10 ^6 –10 ^8 M _⊙ , remarkably lower than those of low-luminosity quasars previously identified at z > 4 with ground-based telescopes. JWST and Hubble Space Telescope high-resolution images reveal that the majority of them show extended morphologies indicating significant contribution to the total lights from their host galaxies, except for three compact objects two of which show red spectral energy distributions, probably in a transition phase from faint AGNs to low luminosity quasars. Careful AGN-host decomposition analyses show that their host’s stellar masses are systematically lower than the local relation between the black hole mass and the stellar mass, implying a fast black hole growth consistent with predictions from theoretical simulations. A high fraction of the broad-line AGNs (∼5%), higher than z ∼ 0, indicates that the number density of such faint AGNs is higher than an extrapolation of the quasar luminosity function, implying a large population of AGNs in the early universe. Such faint AGNs contribute to cosmic reionization, while the total contribution is not large, up to ∼50% at z ∼ 6, because of their faint nature.
We present two bright galaxy candidates at z ∼ 12–13 identified in our H-dropout Lyman break selection with 2.3 deg(exp 2) near-infrared deep imaging data. These galaxy candidates, selected after ...careful screening of foreground interlopers, have spectral energy distributions showing a sharp discontinuity around 1.7 μm, a flat continuum at 2–5 μm, and nondetections at <1.2 μm in the available photometric data sets, all of which are consistent with a z > 12 galaxy. An ALMA program targeting one of the candidates shows a tentative 4σ O III 88 μm line at z = 13.27, in agreement with its photometric redshift estimate. The number density of the z ∼ 12–13 candidates is comparable to that of bright z ∼ 10 galaxies and is consistent with a recently proposed double-power-law luminosity function rather than the Schechter function, indicating little evolution in the abundance of bright galaxies from z ∼ 4 to 13. Comparisons with theoretical models show that the models cannot reproduce the bright end of rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity functions at z ∼ 10–13. Combined with recent studies reporting similarly bright galaxies at z ∼ 9–11 and mature stellar populations at z ∼ 6–9, our results indicate the existence of a number of star-forming galaxies at z > 10, which will be detected with upcoming space missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and GREX-PLUS.
Abstract
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is expressed by
ϕ
(
m
) ∝
m
−
α
with the slope
α
, and known as a poorly constrained but very important function in studies of star and galaxy ...formation. There are no sensible observational constraints on the IMF slopes beyond the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Here we combine two sets of observational results, (1) cosmic densities of core-collapse supernova (CCSN) explosion rates and (2) cosmic far-UV radiation (and infrared reradiation) densities, which are sensitive to massive (≃8–50
M
⊙
) and moderately massive (≃2.5–7
M
⊙
) stars, respectively, and constrain the IMF slope at
m
> 1
M
⊙
with a freedom of redshift evolution. Although no redshift evolution is identified beyond the uncertainties, we find that the cosmic-average IMF slope at
z
= 0 is
α
= 1.8–3.2 at the 95% confidence level that is comparable with the Salpeter IMF,
α
= 2.35, which marks the first constraint on the cosmic-average IMF. We show a forecast for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope supernova survey that will provide significantly strong constraints on the IMF slope with
δ
α
≃ 0.5 over
z
= 0–2. Moreover, as for an independent IMF probe instead of (1), we suggest to use diffuse supernovae neutrino background (DSNB), relic neutrinos from CCSNe. We expect that the Hyper-Kamiokande neutrino observations over 20 yr will improve the constraints on the IMF slope and the redshift evolution significantly better than those obtained today, if the systematic uncertainties of DSNB production physics are reduced in the future numerical simulations.
A fundamental quest of modern astronomy is to locate the earliest galaxies and study how they influenced the intergalactic medium a few hundred million years after the Big Bang
. The abundance of ...star-forming galaxies is known to decline
from redshifts of about 6 to 10, but a key question is the extent of star formation at even earlier times, corresponding to the period when the first galaxies might have emerged. Here we report spectroscopic observations of MACS1149-JD1
, a gravitationally lensed galaxy observed when the Universe was less than four per cent of its present age. We detect an emission line of doubly ionized oxygen at a redshift of 9.1096 ± 0.0006, with an uncertainty of one standard deviation. This precisely determined redshift indicates that the red rest-frame optical colour arises from a dominant stellar component that formed about 250 million years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of about 15. Our results indicate that it may be possible to detect such early episodes of star formation in similar galaxies with future telescopes.
Future missions for long gamma-ray burst (GRB) observations at high redshift, such as the High-z Gamma-ray bursts for Unraveling the Dark Ages Mission and the Transient High-Energy Sky and Early ...Universe Surveyor, will provide clues to the star formation history in our universe. In this paper focusing on high-redshift (z > 8) GRBs, we calculate the detection rate of long GRBs by future observations, considering both Population I and II stars and Population III stars as GRB progenitors. For the Population I and II star formation rate (SFR), we adopt an up-to-date model of a high-redshift SFR based on the halo mass function and the dark matter accretion rate obtained from cosmological simulations. We show that the Population I and II GRB rate steeply decreases with redshift. This would rather enable us to detect the different type of GRBs, Population III GRBs, at very high redshift. If 10% or more Population III stars die as an ultra-long GRB, the future missions would detect such GRBs in one year in spite of their low fluence. More luminous GRBs are expected from massive compact Population III stars produced via the binary merger. In our conventional case, the detection rate of such luminous GRBs is 3-20 yr−1 (z > 8). Those future observations contribute to revealing the Population III star formation history.
We present deep near-infrared spectroscopy of six quasars at 6.1 ≤ z ≤ 6.7 with Very Large Telescope/X-Shooter and Gemini-N/GNIRS. Our objects, originally discovered through a wide-field optical ...survey with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP), have the lowest luminosities (−25.5 mag ≤ M1450 ≤ −23.1 mag) of the z > 5.8 quasars with measured black hole (BH) masses. From single-epoch mass measurements based on Mg ii λ2798, we find a wide range in BH masses, from MBH = 107.6 to 109.3 M . The Eddington ratios Lbol/LEdd range from 0.16 to 1.1, but the majority of the HSC quasars are powered by MBH ∼ 109 M supermassive black holes (SMBHs) accreting at sub-Eddington rates. The Eddington ratio distribution of the HSC quasars is inclined to lower accretion rates than those of Willott et al., who measured the BH masses for similarly faint z ∼ 6 quasars. This suggests that the global Eddington ratio distribution is wider than has previously been thought. The presence of MBH ∼ 109 M SMBHs at z ∼ 6 cannot be explained with constant sub-Eddington accretion from stellar remnant seed BHs. Therefore, we may be witnessing the first buildup of the most massive BHs in the first billion years of the universe, the accretion activity of which is transforming from active growth to a quiescent phase. Measurements of a larger complete sample of z 6 low-luminosity quasars, as well as deeper observations with future facilities, will enable us to better understand the early SMBH growth in the reionization epoch.
We present very faint dropout galaxies at z ∼ 6−9 with a stellar mass M down to that are found in deep optical/near-infrared (NIR) images of the full data sets of the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) ...program in conjunction with deep ground-based and Spitzer images and gravitational-lensing magnification effects. We investigate stellar populations of the HFF dropout galaxies with the optical/NIR photometry and BEAGLE models made of self-consistent stellar population synthesis and photoionization models, carefully including strong nebular emission impacting on the photometry. We identify 453 galaxies with . Our best-estimate function is comparable to a model of star formation duration time of 100 Myr that is assumed in Bouwens et al. We derive the galaxy stellar mass functions (GSMFs) at z ∼ 6-9 that agree with those obtained by previous studies at , and that extend to . Estimating the stellar mass densities with the GSMFs, we find a very slow evolution from z ∼ 9 to z ∼ 6-7, which is consistent with the one estimated from star formation rate density measurements. In conjunction with the estimates of the galaxy effective radii Re on the source plane, we have pinpointed four objects with low stellar masses ( ) and very compact morphologies ( pc) that are comparable with those of globular clusters (GCs) in the Milky Way today. These objects are candidates of star clusters, some of which may be related to GCs today.
ABSTRACT
The detection of two z ∼ 13 galaxy candidates has opened a new window on galaxy formation at an era only 330 Myr after the big bang. Here, we investigate the physical nature of these ...sources: are we witnessing star forming galaxies or quasars at such early epochs? If powered by star formation, the observed ultraviolet (UV) luminosities and number densities can be jointly explained if: (i) these galaxies are extreme star-formers with star formation rates 5−24 × higher than those expected from extrapolations of average lower-redshift relations; (ii) the star formation efficiency increases with halo mass and is countered by increasing dust attenuation from z ∼ 10−5; (iii) they form stars with an extremely top-heavy initial mass function. The quasar hypothesis is also plausible, with the UV luminosity produced by black holes of $\sim 10^8 \, \rm M_\odot$ accreting at or slightly above the Eddington rate (fEdd ∼ 1.0). This black hole mass at z ∼ 13 would require very challenging, but not implausible, growth parameters. If spectroscopically confirmed, these two sources will represent a remarkable laboratory to study the Universe at previously inaccessible redshifts.
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