EPOCHS IV: SED Modelling Assumptions and their impact on the Stellar Mass Function at 6.5 < z < 13.5 using PEARLS and public JWST observations

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Main Authors: Harvey, Thomas, Conselice, Christopher J., Adams, Nathan J., Austin, Duncan, Juodzbalis, Ignas, Trussler, James, Li, Qiong, Ormerod, Katherine, Ferreira, Leonardo, Lovell, Christopher C., Duan, Qiao, Westcott, Lewi, Harris, Honor, Bhatawdekar, Rachana, Coe, Dan, Cohen, Seth H., Caruana, Joseph, Cheng, Cheng, Driver, Simon P., Frye, Brenda, Furtak, Lukas J., Grogin, Norman A., Hathi, Nimish P., Holwerda, Benne W., Jansen, Rolf A., Koekemoer, Anton M., Marshall, Madeline A., Nonino, Mario, Vijayan, Aswin P., Wilkins, Stephen M., Windhorst, Rogier, Willmer, Christopher N. A., Yan, Haojing, Zitrin, Adi
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Published: 2024
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author Harvey, Thomas
Conselice, Christopher J.
Adams, Nathan J.
Austin, Duncan
Juodzbalis, Ignas
Trussler, James
Li, Qiong
Ormerod, Katherine
Ferreira, Leonardo
Lovell, Christopher C.
Duan, Qiao
Westcott, Lewi
Harris, Honor
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Coe, Dan
Cohen, Seth H.
Caruana, Joseph
Cheng, Cheng
Driver, Simon P.
Frye, Brenda
Furtak, Lukas J.
Grogin, Norman A.
Hathi, Nimish P.
Holwerda, Benne W.
Jansen, Rolf A.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Marshall, Madeline A.
Nonino, Mario
Vijayan, Aswin P.
Wilkins, Stephen M.
Windhorst, Rogier
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
Yan, Haojing
Zitrin, Adi
author_facet Harvey, Thomas
Conselice, Christopher J.
Adams, Nathan J.
Austin, Duncan
Juodzbalis, Ignas
Trussler, James
Li, Qiong
Ormerod, Katherine
Ferreira, Leonardo
Lovell, Christopher C.
Duan, Qiao
Westcott, Lewi
Harris, Honor
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Coe, Dan
Cohen, Seth H.
Caruana, Joseph
Cheng, Cheng
Driver, Simon P.
Frye, Brenda
Furtak, Lukas J.
Grogin, Norman A.
Hathi, Nimish P.
Holwerda, Benne W.
Jansen, Rolf A.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Marshall, Madeline A.
Nonino, Mario
Vijayan, Aswin P.
Wilkins, Stephen M.
Windhorst, Rogier
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
Yan, Haojing
Zitrin, Adi
contents We utilize deep JWST NIRCam observations for the first direct constraints on the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function (GSMF) at $z>10$. Our EPOCHS v1 sample includes 1120 galaxy candidates at $6.5<z<13.5$ taken from a consistent reduction and analysis of publicly available deep JWST NIRCam data covering the PEARLS, CEERS, GLASS, JADES GOOD-S, NGDEEP, and SMACS0723 surveys, totalling 187 arcmin$^2$. We investigate the impact of SED fitting methods, assumed star formation histories (SFH), dust laws, and priors on galaxy masses and the resultant GSMF. Whilst our fiducial GSMF agrees with the literature at $z<13.5$, we find that the assumed SFH model has a large impact on the GSMF and stellar mass density (SMD), finding a 0.75~dex increase in the SMD at $z=10.5$ between a flexible non-parametric and standard parametric SFH. Overall, we find a flatter SMD evolution at $z \geq 9$ than some studies predict, suggesting a rapid buildup of stellar mass in the early Universe. We find no incompatibility between our results and those of standard cosmological models, as suggested previously, although the most massive galaxies may require a high star formation efficiency. We find that the "Little Red Dot" galaxies dominate the $z=7$ GSMF at high-masses, necessitating a better understanding of the relative contributions of AGN and stellar emission. We show that assuming a theoretically motivated top-heavy IMF reduces stellar mass by 0.5~dex without affecting fit quality, but our results remain consistent with existing cosmological models with a standard IMF.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_03908
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EPOCHS IV: SED Modelling Assumptions and their impact on the Stellar Mass Function at 6.5 < z < 13.5 using PEARLS and public JWST observations
Harvey, Thomas
Conselice, Christopher J.
Adams, Nathan J.
Austin, Duncan
Juodzbalis, Ignas
Trussler, James
Li, Qiong
Ormerod, Katherine
Ferreira, Leonardo
Lovell, Christopher C.
Duan, Qiao
Westcott, Lewi
Harris, Honor
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Coe, Dan
Cohen, Seth H.
Caruana, Joseph
Cheng, Cheng
Driver, Simon P.
Frye, Brenda
Furtak, Lukas J.
Grogin, Norman A.
Hathi, Nimish P.
Holwerda, Benne W.
Jansen, Rolf A.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Marshall, Madeline A.
Nonino, Mario
Vijayan, Aswin P.
Wilkins, Stephen M.
Windhorst, Rogier
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
Yan, Haojing
Zitrin, Adi
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We utilize deep JWST NIRCam observations for the first direct constraints on the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function (GSMF) at $z>10$. Our EPOCHS v1 sample includes 1120 galaxy candidates at $6.5<z<13.5$ taken from a consistent reduction and analysis of publicly available deep JWST NIRCam data covering the PEARLS, CEERS, GLASS, JADES GOOD-S, NGDEEP, and SMACS0723 surveys, totalling 187 arcmin$^2$. We investigate the impact of SED fitting methods, assumed star formation histories (SFH), dust laws, and priors on galaxy masses and the resultant GSMF. Whilst our fiducial GSMF agrees with the literature at $z<13.5$, we find that the assumed SFH model has a large impact on the GSMF and stellar mass density (SMD), finding a 0.75~dex increase in the SMD at $z=10.5$ between a flexible non-parametric and standard parametric SFH. Overall, we find a flatter SMD evolution at $z \geq 9$ than some studies predict, suggesting a rapid buildup of stellar mass in the early Universe. We find no incompatibility between our results and those of standard cosmological models, as suggested previously, although the most massive galaxies may require a high star formation efficiency. We find that the "Little Red Dot" galaxies dominate the $z=7$ GSMF at high-masses, necessitating a better understanding of the relative contributions of AGN and stellar emission. We show that assuming a theoretically motivated top-heavy IMF reduces stellar mass by 0.5~dex without affecting fit quality, but our results remain consistent with existing cosmological models with a standard IMF.
title EPOCHS IV: SED Modelling Assumptions and their impact on the Stellar Mass Function at 6.5 < z < 13.5 using PEARLS and public JWST observations
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03908