_version_ 1866909395142574080
author Sandles, Lester
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Maiolino, Roberto
Looser, Tobias J.
Arribas, Santiago
Baker, William M.
Bonaventura, Nina
Bunker, Andrew J.
Cameron, Alex J.
Carniani, Stefano
Charlot, Stephane
Chevallard, Jacopo
Curti, Mirko
Curtis-Lake, Emma
de Graaff, Anna
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Hainline, Kevin
Ji, Zhiyuan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Jones, Gareth C.
Kumari, Nimisha
Nelson, Erica
Perna, Michele
Rawle, Tim
Rix, Hans-Walter
Robertson, Brant
Del Pino, Bruno Rodriguez
Scholtz, Jan
Shivaei, Irene
Smit, Renske
Sun, Fengwu
Tacchella, Sandro
Uebler, Hannah
Williams, Christina C.
Willott, Chris
Witstok, Joris
author_facet Sandles, Lester
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Maiolino, Roberto
Looser, Tobias J.
Arribas, Santiago
Baker, William M.
Bonaventura, Nina
Bunker, Andrew J.
Cameron, Alex J.
Carniani, Stefano
Charlot, Stephane
Chevallard, Jacopo
Curti, Mirko
Curtis-Lake, Emma
de Graaff, Anna
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Hainline, Kevin
Ji, Zhiyuan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Jones, Gareth C.
Kumari, Nimisha
Nelson, Erica
Perna, Michele
Rawle, Tim
Rix, Hans-Walter
Robertson, Brant
Del Pino, Bruno Rodriguez
Scholtz, Jan
Shivaei, Irene
Smit, Renske
Sun, Fengwu
Tacchella, Sandro
Uebler, Hannah
Williams, Christina C.
Willott, Chris
Witstok, Joris
contents We present Balmer decrement H$α$/ H$β$ measurements for a sample of 51 galaxies at redshifts z = 4-7 observed with the JWST/NIRSpec MSA, as part of the JADES survey. Leveraging 28-hour long exposures and the efficiency of the prism/clear configuration (but also using information from the medium-resolution gratings), we are able to probe directly the low-mass end of the galaxy population, reaching stellar masses Mstar as low as 10^7 Msun . We find that the correlation between Balmer decrement and Mstar is already established at these high redshifts, indicating a rapid build up of dust in moderately massive galaxies at such early epochs. The lowest-mass galaxies in our sample (Mstar = 1-3 x 10^7 Msun ) display a remarkably low Balmer decrement of 2.88 $\pm$ 0.08, consistent with case B, suggesting very little dust content. However, we warn that such a low observed Balmer decrement may also partly be a consequence of an intrinsically lower H$α$/ H$β$, resulting from the extreme conditions of the ionized gas in these primeval and unevolved systems. We further compare the Balmer decrement to continuum-derived star-formation rates (SFR), finding tentative evidence of a correlation, which likely traces the underlying connection between SFR and mass of cold gas. However, we note that larger samples are required to distinguish between direct and primary correlations from indirect and secondary dependencies at such high redshifts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_03931
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle JADES: Balmer Decrement Measurements at redshifts 4 < z < 7
Sandles, Lester
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Maiolino, Roberto
Looser, Tobias J.
Arribas, Santiago
Baker, William M.
Bonaventura, Nina
Bunker, Andrew J.
Cameron, Alex J.
Carniani, Stefano
Charlot, Stephane
Chevallard, Jacopo
Curti, Mirko
Curtis-Lake, Emma
de Graaff, Anna
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Hainline, Kevin
Ji, Zhiyuan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Jones, Gareth C.
Kumari, Nimisha
Nelson, Erica
Perna, Michele
Rawle, Tim
Rix, Hans-Walter
Robertson, Brant
Del Pino, Bruno Rodriguez
Scholtz, Jan
Shivaei, Irene
Smit, Renske
Sun, Fengwu
Tacchella, Sandro
Uebler, Hannah
Williams, Christina C.
Willott, Chris
Witstok, Joris
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present Balmer decrement H$α$/ H$β$ measurements for a sample of 51 galaxies at redshifts z = 4-7 observed with the JWST/NIRSpec MSA, as part of the JADES survey. Leveraging 28-hour long exposures and the efficiency of the prism/clear configuration (but also using information from the medium-resolution gratings), we are able to probe directly the low-mass end of the galaxy population, reaching stellar masses Mstar as low as 10^7 Msun . We find that the correlation between Balmer decrement and Mstar is already established at these high redshifts, indicating a rapid build up of dust in moderately massive galaxies at such early epochs. The lowest-mass galaxies in our sample (Mstar = 1-3 x 10^7 Msun ) display a remarkably low Balmer decrement of 2.88 $\pm$ 0.08, consistent with case B, suggesting very little dust content. However, we warn that such a low observed Balmer decrement may also partly be a consequence of an intrinsically lower H$α$/ H$β$, resulting from the extreme conditions of the ionized gas in these primeval and unevolved systems. We further compare the Balmer decrement to continuum-derived star-formation rates (SFR), finding tentative evidence of a correlation, which likely traces the underlying connection between SFR and mass of cold gas. However, we note that larger samples are required to distinguish between direct and primary correlations from indirect and secondary dependencies at such high redshifts.
title JADES: Balmer Decrement Measurements at redshifts 4 < z < 7
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03931