A Size Estimate for Galaxy GN-z11

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Baldwin, James O., Nelson, Erica, Johnson, Benjamin D., Oesch, Pascal A., Tacchella, Sandro, Illingworth, Garth D., Gibson, Justus, Hartley, Abby
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866929203743555584
author Baldwin, James O.
Nelson, Erica
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Oesch, Pascal A.
Tacchella, Sandro
Illingworth, Garth D.
Gibson, Justus
Hartley, Abby
author_facet Baldwin, James O.
Nelson, Erica
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Oesch, Pascal A.
Tacchella, Sandro
Illingworth, Garth D.
Gibson, Justus
Hartley, Abby
contents GN-z11 is the highest redshift galaxy spectroscopically confirmed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Previous measurements of the effective radius of GN-z11 utilized galfit, which is not optimized to measure structural parameters for such a faint, distant object. Using a new software program called forcepho on HST data for the first time, we derive a size from images in the F160W band obtained both from the complete CANDELS survey and additional midcycle observations in order to contribute to the knowledge base on the size evolution, size-luminosity, and size-mass relation of early galaxies. We find a half-light radius mean of 0''.036 \(\pm\) 0''.006 corresponding to a physical size of 0.15 \(\pm\) 0.025 kpc. This size, smaller than the point spread function, is dramatically smaller than previous estimates with shallower HST data using galfit but consistent with recent measurements using forcepho on new JWST data arXiv:2302.07234. Such a small size, combined with the JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopic observations arXiv:2305.12492, suggests that GN-z11's high luminosity is dominated by an AGN.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_04186
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Size Estimate for Galaxy GN-z11
Baldwin, James O.
Nelson, Erica
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Oesch, Pascal A.
Tacchella, Sandro
Illingworth, Garth D.
Gibson, Justus
Hartley, Abby
Astrophysics of Galaxies
GN-z11 is the highest redshift galaxy spectroscopically confirmed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Previous measurements of the effective radius of GN-z11 utilized galfit, which is not optimized to measure structural parameters for such a faint, distant object. Using a new software program called forcepho on HST data for the first time, we derive a size from images in the F160W band obtained both from the complete CANDELS survey and additional midcycle observations in order to contribute to the knowledge base on the size evolution, size-luminosity, and size-mass relation of early galaxies. We find a half-light radius mean of 0''.036 \(\pm\) 0''.006 corresponding to a physical size of 0.15 \(\pm\) 0.025 kpc. This size, smaller than the point spread function, is dramatically smaller than previous estimates with shallower HST data using galfit but consistent with recent measurements using forcepho on new JWST data arXiv:2302.07234. Such a small size, combined with the JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopic observations arXiv:2305.12492, suggests that GN-z11's high luminosity is dominated by an AGN.
title A Size Estimate for Galaxy GN-z11
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.04186