JWST+ALMA reveal the build up of stellar mass in the cores of dusty star-forming galaxies at Cosmic Noon
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866918387491274752 |
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| author | Bodansky, Sarah Whitaker, Katherine E. Abdullah, Ayesha Lin, Jamie Oesch, Pascal A. Pope, Alexandra Xiao, Mengyuan Covelo-Paz, Alba Cutler, Sam Diaz, Carlos Garcia Lee, Minju M. Manning, Sinclaire M. Meyer, Romain A. Narayanan, Desika Nelson, Erica Shivaei, Irene van Dokkum, Pieter |
| author_facet | Bodansky, Sarah Whitaker, Katherine E. Abdullah, Ayesha Lin, Jamie Oesch, Pascal A. Pope, Alexandra Xiao, Mengyuan Covelo-Paz, Alba Cutler, Sam Diaz, Carlos Garcia Lee, Minju M. Manning, Sinclaire M. Meyer, Romain A. Narayanan, Desika Nelson, Erica Shivaei, Irene van Dokkum, Pieter |
| contents | Dusty star-forming galaxies have long been suspected to serve as the missing evolutionary bridge between the star-forming and quiescent phases of massive galaxy evolution. With the combined power of JWST and ALMA, it is now possible to use high resolution imaging at rest-frame ultraviolet (UV), optical, near-infrared (NIR), and sub-mm wavelengths to study the multi-wavelength morphologies tracing both the stellar populations and dust during this key phase. We present the joint analysis of JWST/NIRCam imaging in GOODS-S and mm dust emission traced by ALMA for a sample of 33 galaxies at $z=1.5$ to $z=5.5$ selected from the 1.1mm GOODS-ALMA 2.0 survey, and compare the morphologies of this population to mass- and redshift-selected samples of field star-forming and quiescent galaxies. The 1.1mm-selected sample is morphologically distinct from other similarly massive star-forming galaxies; we find a steeper size-wavelength gradient from 1.5-4.4$μ$m, with a more dramatic decrease in size towards longer wavelengths. While the rest-NIR surface brightness profiles of the 1.1mm-selected galaxies are brighter in the inner regions relative to the field star-forming population, they are remarkably similar to the quiescent population. These morphological differences could suggest that dusty star-forming galaxies, unlike more typical star-forming galaxies, have already built up stellar mass in a severely dust-obscured core, leading to extended and clumpy morphologies at rest-UV and rest-optical wavelengths and more compact emission in the rest-NIR that is co-spatial with dust. If the bulge is already established, we speculate that mm-selected galaxies may imminently evolve to join their quiescent descendants. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_19472 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | JWST+ALMA reveal the build up of stellar mass in the cores of dusty star-forming galaxies at Cosmic Noon Bodansky, Sarah Whitaker, Katherine E. Abdullah, Ayesha Lin, Jamie Oesch, Pascal A. Pope, Alexandra Xiao, Mengyuan Covelo-Paz, Alba Cutler, Sam Diaz, Carlos Garcia Lee, Minju M. Manning, Sinclaire M. Meyer, Romain A. Narayanan, Desika Nelson, Erica Shivaei, Irene van Dokkum, Pieter Astrophysics of Galaxies Dusty star-forming galaxies have long been suspected to serve as the missing evolutionary bridge between the star-forming and quiescent phases of massive galaxy evolution. With the combined power of JWST and ALMA, it is now possible to use high resolution imaging at rest-frame ultraviolet (UV), optical, near-infrared (NIR), and sub-mm wavelengths to study the multi-wavelength morphologies tracing both the stellar populations and dust during this key phase. We present the joint analysis of JWST/NIRCam imaging in GOODS-S and mm dust emission traced by ALMA for a sample of 33 galaxies at $z=1.5$ to $z=5.5$ selected from the 1.1mm GOODS-ALMA 2.0 survey, and compare the morphologies of this population to mass- and redshift-selected samples of field star-forming and quiescent galaxies. The 1.1mm-selected sample is morphologically distinct from other similarly massive star-forming galaxies; we find a steeper size-wavelength gradient from 1.5-4.4$μ$m, with a more dramatic decrease in size towards longer wavelengths. While the rest-NIR surface brightness profiles of the 1.1mm-selected galaxies are brighter in the inner regions relative to the field star-forming population, they are remarkably similar to the quiescent population. These morphological differences could suggest that dusty star-forming galaxies, unlike more typical star-forming galaxies, have already built up stellar mass in a severely dust-obscured core, leading to extended and clumpy morphologies at rest-UV and rest-optical wavelengths and more compact emission in the rest-NIR that is co-spatial with dust. If the bulge is already established, we speculate that mm-selected galaxies may imminently evolve to join their quiescent descendants. |
| title | JWST+ALMA reveal the build up of stellar mass in the cores of dusty star-forming galaxies at Cosmic Noon |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19472 |