An Extremely-red, UV-bright, and Extended Galaxy at z~6 in PRIMER/UDS: An Early Massive Galaxy Caught Quenching after an Obscured Starburst?
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908711516110848 |
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| author | Hudson, Nadara Endsley, Ryan Chisholm, John |
| author_facet | Hudson, Nadara Endsley, Ryan Chisholm, John |
| contents | JWST continues to reveal an astonishing number of massive quiescent galaxies at $z>4$, with number densities $\gtrsim10\times$ higher than model predictions. NIRSpec spectra imply that many of these systems underwent intense starburst episodes (SFR$\,\gtrsim300M_\odot$/yr), though direct evidence of such starbursts in the Gyr largely comes from exceptionally rare dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) selected in the far-infrared. Here, we report the discovery of an extremely red ($β=-0.6$) yet UV-bright (F115W = 26.0 mag) $z\sim6$ star-forming system selected as a Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) over $\approx$500 arcmin$^2$ of deep NIRCam imaging. This galaxy (UDS_43065) shows photometric colors implying a prominent Balmer break and strong H$α$ emission, consistent with a dramatic burst of star formation (SFR$\,\approx\,500-1000\,M_\odot$/yr) occurring 5-10 Myr ago that formed 20-40% of its total stellar mass ($\approx1.5\times10^{10}M_\odot$) with little activity since. This galaxy is one of only two objects with $M_\ast>10^{10}M_\odot$ across our full sample of 813 $z\sim6$ star-forming LBGs, and the only galaxy with a confident extremely-red UV slope ($β>-1$). UDS_43065 is clearly resolved yet compact in F444W ($r_e=400\pm10$ pc) indicating a very high stellar mass surface density of log$(Σ_\mathrm{eff}/(M_\odot\,\mathrm{kpc}^{-2}))=10.25\pm0.13$ comparable to quenched $z\sim2-7$ galaxies. If the inferred star formation history (SFH) of UDS_43065 is corroborated with further observations, this object would seemingly represent a rarely-seen transitional phase between massive DSFGs and passive systems in the first Gyr, helping resolve the puzzling abundance of early massive quenched galaxies. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_12813 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | An Extremely-red, UV-bright, and Extended Galaxy at z~6 in PRIMER/UDS: An Early Massive Galaxy Caught Quenching after an Obscured Starburst? Hudson, Nadara Endsley, Ryan Chisholm, John Astrophysics of Galaxies JWST continues to reveal an astonishing number of massive quiescent galaxies at $z>4$, with number densities $\gtrsim10\times$ higher than model predictions. NIRSpec spectra imply that many of these systems underwent intense starburst episodes (SFR$\,\gtrsim300M_\odot$/yr), though direct evidence of such starbursts in the Gyr largely comes from exceptionally rare dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) selected in the far-infrared. Here, we report the discovery of an extremely red ($β=-0.6$) yet UV-bright (F115W = 26.0 mag) $z\sim6$ star-forming system selected as a Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) over $\approx$500 arcmin$^2$ of deep NIRCam imaging. This galaxy (UDS_43065) shows photometric colors implying a prominent Balmer break and strong H$α$ emission, consistent with a dramatic burst of star formation (SFR$\,\approx\,500-1000\,M_\odot$/yr) occurring 5-10 Myr ago that formed 20-40% of its total stellar mass ($\approx1.5\times10^{10}M_\odot$) with little activity since. This galaxy is one of only two objects with $M_\ast>10^{10}M_\odot$ across our full sample of 813 $z\sim6$ star-forming LBGs, and the only galaxy with a confident extremely-red UV slope ($β>-1$). UDS_43065 is clearly resolved yet compact in F444W ($r_e=400\pm10$ pc) indicating a very high stellar mass surface density of log$(Σ_\mathrm{eff}/(M_\odot\,\mathrm{kpc}^{-2}))=10.25\pm0.13$ comparable to quenched $z\sim2-7$ galaxies. If the inferred star formation history (SFH) of UDS_43065 is corroborated with further observations, this object would seemingly represent a rarely-seen transitional phase between massive DSFGs and passive systems in the first Gyr, helping resolve the puzzling abundance of early massive quenched galaxies. |
| title | An Extremely-red, UV-bright, and Extended Galaxy at z~6 in PRIMER/UDS: An Early Massive Galaxy Caught Quenching after an Obscured Starburst? |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.12813 |