Measuring Emission Lines with JWST-MegaScience Medium-Bands: A New Window into Dust and Star Formation at Cosmic Noon
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Lorenz, Brian Suess, Katherine A. Kriek, Mariska Price, Sedona H. Leja, Joel Nelson, Erica Atek, Hakim Bezanson, Rachel Brammer, Gabriel Cutler, Sam E. Dayal, Pratika de Graaff, Anna Greene, Jenny E. Furtak, Lukas J. Labbé, Ivo Marchesini, Danilo Maseda, Michael V. Miller, Tim B. Mintz, Abby Mitsuhashi, Ikki Pan, Richard Barrera, Natalia Porraz Wang, Bingjie Weaver, John R. Williams, Christina C. Whitaker, Katherine E. |
| author_facet | Lorenz, Brian Suess, Katherine A. Kriek, Mariska Price, Sedona H. Leja, Joel Nelson, Erica Atek, Hakim Bezanson, Rachel Brammer, Gabriel Cutler, Sam E. Dayal, Pratika de Graaff, Anna Greene, Jenny E. Furtak, Lukas J. Labbé, Ivo Marchesini, Danilo Maseda, Michael V. Miller, Tim B. Mintz, Abby Mitsuhashi, Ikki Pan, Richard Barrera, Natalia Porraz Wang, Bingjie Weaver, John R. Williams, Christina C. Whitaker, Katherine E. |
| contents | We demonstrate the power of JWST-NIRCam medium-band photometry to measure emission line fluxes and study dust and star formation properties of galaxies at cosmic noon. In this work, we present photometric emission line measurements and spatially-resolved maps of H$α$ and Pa$β$ for a sample of 14 galaxies at $1.3\leq z\leq 2.4$, observed by the MegaScience medium-band survey and the UNCOVER deep spectroscopic survey. We measure line fluxes directly from the medium-band photometry and compare with spectroscopic measurements from UNCOVER. We find reasonable agreement between the photometric and spectroscopic emission line fluxes for both H$α$ and Pa$β$, with scatter $<0.15$ dex down to emission line equivalent widths of $10$Å. We also make a nebular dust measurement from the ratio Pa$β$ / H$α$, finding an average nebular A$_\mathrm{V}$ of 1.4. Our photometric A$_\mathrm{V}$ measurements show a slightly larger scatter of $0.5$ magnitudes when compared to spectroscopic measurements; however, this scatter may be partially caused by aperture effects. Finally, we produce spatially resolved maps of H$α$ emission, Pa$β$ emission, and stellar continuum. We find that offsets in H$α$ and Pa$β$ emission are common, especially for galaxies with the highest A$_\mathrm{V}$, indicating dusty sub-structures. Furthermore, the correlation between H$α$ and continuum emission decreases with increasing A$_\mathrm{V}$, suggesting that the dustiest objects have clumpy dust and star formation distributions. Our study demonstrates the power of medium-band photometry to directly probe emission line strengths, star formation, and dust attenuation for hundreds of galaxies in UNCOVER and thousands of galaxies in upcoming JWST medium-band surveys. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_10632 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Measuring Emission Lines with JWST-MegaScience Medium-Bands: A New Window into Dust and Star Formation at Cosmic Noon Lorenz, Brian Suess, Katherine A. Kriek, Mariska Price, Sedona H. Leja, Joel Nelson, Erica Atek, Hakim Bezanson, Rachel Brammer, Gabriel Cutler, Sam E. Dayal, Pratika de Graaff, Anna Greene, Jenny E. Furtak, Lukas J. Labbé, Ivo Marchesini, Danilo Maseda, Michael V. Miller, Tim B. Mintz, Abby Mitsuhashi, Ikki Pan, Richard Barrera, Natalia Porraz Wang, Bingjie Weaver, John R. Williams, Christina C. Whitaker, Katherine E. Astrophysics of Galaxies We demonstrate the power of JWST-NIRCam medium-band photometry to measure emission line fluxes and study dust and star formation properties of galaxies at cosmic noon. In this work, we present photometric emission line measurements and spatially-resolved maps of H$α$ and Pa$β$ for a sample of 14 galaxies at $1.3\leq z\leq 2.4$, observed by the MegaScience medium-band survey and the UNCOVER deep spectroscopic survey. We measure line fluxes directly from the medium-band photometry and compare with spectroscopic measurements from UNCOVER. We find reasonable agreement between the photometric and spectroscopic emission line fluxes for both H$α$ and Pa$β$, with scatter $<0.15$ dex down to emission line equivalent widths of $10$Å. We also make a nebular dust measurement from the ratio Pa$β$ / H$α$, finding an average nebular A$_\mathrm{V}$ of 1.4. Our photometric A$_\mathrm{V}$ measurements show a slightly larger scatter of $0.5$ magnitudes when compared to spectroscopic measurements; however, this scatter may be partially caused by aperture effects. Finally, we produce spatially resolved maps of H$α$ emission, Pa$β$ emission, and stellar continuum. We find that offsets in H$α$ and Pa$β$ emission are common, especially for galaxies with the highest A$_\mathrm{V}$, indicating dusty sub-structures. Furthermore, the correlation between H$α$ and continuum emission decreases with increasing A$_\mathrm{V}$, suggesting that the dustiest objects have clumpy dust and star formation distributions. Our study demonstrates the power of medium-band photometry to directly probe emission line strengths, star formation, and dust attenuation for hundreds of galaxies in UNCOVER and thousands of galaxies in upcoming JWST medium-band surveys. |
| title | Measuring Emission Lines with JWST-MegaScience Medium-Bands: A New Window into Dust and Star Formation at Cosmic Noon |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.10632 |