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JADES Imaging of GN-z11: Revealing the Morphology and Environment of a Luminous Galaxy 430 Myr after the Big Bang

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title> jats:pWe present JWST NIRCam nine-band near-infrared imaging of the luminous jats:italicz</jats:italic> = 10.6 galaxy GN-z11 from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey of the GOODS-N field. We find a spectral energy distribution (SED) entirely consistent with the expected form of a high-redshift galaxy: a clear blue continuum from 1.5 to 4 jats:italicμ</jats:italic>m with a complete dropout in F115W. The core of GN-z11 is extremely compact in JWST imaging. We analyze the image with a two-component model, using a point source and a Sérsic profile that fits to a half-light radius of 200 pc and an index jats:italicn</jats:italic> = 0.9. We find a low-surface-brightness haze about 0.″4 to the northeast of the galaxy, which is most likely a foreground object but might be a more extended component of GN-z11. At a spectroscopic redshift of 10.60 (Bunker et al. 2023), the comparison of the NIRCam F410M and F444W images spans the Balmer jump. From population-synthesis modeling, here assuming no light from an active galactic nucleus, we reproduce the SED of GN-z11, finding a stellar mass of ∼10jats:sup9</jats:sup> jats:italicM</jats:italic> jats:sub⊙</jats:sub>, a star formation rate of ∼20 jats:italicM</jats:italic> jats:sub⊙</jats:sub> yrjats:sup−1</jats:sup>, and a young stellar age of ∼20 Myr. Since massive galaxies at high redshift are likely to be highly clustered, we search for faint neighbors of GN-z11, finding nine galaxies out to ∼5 comoving Mpc transverse with photometric redshifts consistent with jats:italicz</jats:italic> = 10.6, and a tenth more tentative dropout only 3″ away. This is consistent with GN-z11 being hosted by a massive dark-matter halo (≈8 × 10jats:sup10</jats:sup> jats:italicM</jats:italic> jats:sub⊙</jats:sub>), though lower halo masses cannot be ruled out.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

5101 Astronomical Sciences, 51 Physical Sciences

Journal Title

Astrophysical Journal

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0004-637X
1538-4357

Volume Title

952

Publisher

American Astronomical Society
Sponsorship
European Research Council (695671)