Remarkably Compact Quiescent Candidates at $3<z<5$ in JWST-CEERS

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Main Authors: Wright, Lillian, Whitaker, Katherine E., Weaver, John R., Cutler, Sam E., Wang, Bingjie, Carnall, Adam, Suess, Katherine A., Bezanson, Rachel, Nelson, Erica, Miller, Tim B., Ito, Kei, Valentino, Francesco
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Wright, Lillian
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Weaver, John R.
Cutler, Sam E.
Wang, Bingjie
Carnall, Adam
Suess, Katherine A.
Bezanson, Rachel
Nelson, Erica
Miller, Tim B.
Ito, Kei
Valentino, Francesco
author_facet Wright, Lillian
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Weaver, John R.
Cutler, Sam E.
Wang, Bingjie
Carnall, Adam
Suess, Katherine A.
Bezanson, Rachel
Nelson, Erica
Miller, Tim B.
Ito, Kei
Valentino, Francesco
contents In this letter, we measure the rest-frame optical and near-infrared sizes of ten quiescent candidates at $3<z<5$, first reported by Carnall et al. (2023a). We use James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) F277W and F444W imaging obtained through the public CEERS Early Release Science (ERS) program and imcascade, an astronomical fitting code that utilizes Multi-Gaussian Expansion, to carry out our size measurements. When compared to the extrapolation of rest-optical size-mass relations for quiescent galaxies at lower redshift, eight out of ten candidates in our sample (80%) are on average more compact by $\sim$40%. Seven out of ten candidates (70%) exhibit rest-frame infrared sizes $\sim$10% smaller than rest-frame optical sizes, indicative of negative color gradients. Two candidates (20%) have rest-frame infrared sizes $\sim$1.4$\times$ larger than rest-frame optical sizes; one of these candidates exhibits signs of ongoing or residual star formation, suggesting this galaxy may not be fully quenched. The remaining candidate is unresolved in both filters, which may indicate an Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Strikingly, we observe three of the most massive galaxies in the sample (log(M$_{\star}$/M$_{\odot}$) = 10.74 - 10.95) are extremely compact, with effective radii ${\sim}$0.7 kpc. Our findings provide no indication that the size evolution relation flattens out, and may indicate that the size evolution of quiescent galaxies is steeper than previously anticipated beyond $z>3$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_05394
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Remarkably Compact Quiescent Candidates at $3<z<5$ in JWST-CEERS
Wright, Lillian
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Weaver, John R.
Cutler, Sam E.
Wang, Bingjie
Carnall, Adam
Suess, Katherine A.
Bezanson, Rachel
Nelson, Erica
Miller, Tim B.
Ito, Kei
Valentino, Francesco
Astrophysics of Galaxies
85
In this letter, we measure the rest-frame optical and near-infrared sizes of ten quiescent candidates at $3<z<5$, first reported by Carnall et al. (2023a). We use James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) F277W and F444W imaging obtained through the public CEERS Early Release Science (ERS) program and imcascade, an astronomical fitting code that utilizes Multi-Gaussian Expansion, to carry out our size measurements. When compared to the extrapolation of rest-optical size-mass relations for quiescent galaxies at lower redshift, eight out of ten candidates in our sample (80%) are on average more compact by $\sim$40%. Seven out of ten candidates (70%) exhibit rest-frame infrared sizes $\sim$10% smaller than rest-frame optical sizes, indicative of negative color gradients. Two candidates (20%) have rest-frame infrared sizes $\sim$1.4$\times$ larger than rest-frame optical sizes; one of these candidates exhibits signs of ongoing or residual star formation, suggesting this galaxy may not be fully quenched. The remaining candidate is unresolved in both filters, which may indicate an Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Strikingly, we observe three of the most massive galaxies in the sample (log(M$_{\star}$/M$_{\odot}$) = 10.74 - 10.95) are extremely compact, with effective radii ${\sim}$0.7 kpc. Our findings provide no indication that the size evolution relation flattens out, and may indicate that the size evolution of quiescent galaxies is steeper than previously anticipated beyond $z>3$.
title Remarkably Compact Quiescent Candidates at $3<z<5$ in JWST-CEERS
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
85
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.05394