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Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at z ≈ 10-12 Revealed by JWST

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title> jats:pThe first few 100 Myr at jats:italicz</jats:italic> > 10 mark the last major uncharted epoch in the history of the universe, where only a single galaxy (GN-z11 at jats:italicz</jats:italic> ≈ 11) is currently spectroscopically confirmed. Here we present a search for luminous jats:italicz</jats:italic> > 10 galaxies with JWST/NIRCam photometry spanning ≈1–5 jats:italicμ</jats:italic>m and covering 49 arcminjats:sup2</jats:sup> from the public JWST Early Release Science programs (CEERS and GLASS). Our most secure candidates are two jats:italicM</jats:italic> jats:subUV</jats:sub> ≈ −21 systems: GLASS-z12 and GLASS-z10. These galaxies display abrupt ≳1.8 mag breaks in their spectral energy distributions (SEDs), consistent with complete absorption of flux bluewards of Lyjats:italicα</jats:italic> that is redshifted to jats:inline-formula jats:tex-math

</jats:tex-math> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> mml:miz</mml:mi> mml:mo=</mml:mo> mml:msubsup mml:mrow mml:mn12.4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> mml:mrow mml:mo−</mml:mo> mml:mn0.3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> mml:mrow mml:mo+</mml:mo> mml:mn0.1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="apjlac9b22ieqn1.gif" xlink:type="simple" /> </jats:inline-formula> and jats:inline-formula jats:tex-math

</jats:tex-math> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> mml:miz</mml:mi> mml:mo=</mml:mo> mml:msubsup mml:mrow mml:mn10.4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> mml:mrow mml:mo−</mml:mo> mml:mn0.5</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> mml:mrow mml:mo+</mml:mo> mml:mn0.4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="apjlac9b22ieqn2.gif" xlink:type="simple" /> </jats:inline-formula>. Lower redshift interlopers such as quiescent galaxies with strong Balmer breaks would be comfortably detected at >5jats:italicσ</jats:italic> in multiple bands where instead we find no flux. From SED modeling we infer that these galaxies have already built up ∼10jats:sup9</jats:sup> solar masses in stars over the ≲300–400 Myr after the Big Bang. The brightness of these sources enable morphological constraints. Tantalizingly, GLASS-z10 shows a clearly extended exponential light profile, potentially consistent with a disk galaxy of jats:italicr</jats:italic> jats:sub50</jats:sub> ≈ 0.7 kpc. These sources, if confirmed, join GN-z11 in defying number density forecasts for luminous galaxies based on Schechter UV luminosity functions, which require a survey area >10× larger than we have studied here to find such luminous sources at such high redshifts. They extend evidence from lower redshifts for little or no evolution in the bright end of the UV luminosity function into the cosmic dawn epoch, with implications for just how early these galaxies began forming. This, in turn, suggests that future deep JWST observations may identify relatively bright galaxies to much earlier epochs than might have been anticipated.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

5101 Astronomical Sciences, 51 Physical Sciences

Journal Title

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-8205
2041-8213

Volume Title

Publisher

American Astronomical Society