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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14599 |
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| _version_ | 1866917412835688448 |
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| author | Mirzoyan, S. S. Avagyan, A. Gurzadyan, V. G. |
| author_facet | Mirzoyan, S. S. Avagyan, A. Gurzadyan, V. G. |
| contents | Understanding the prevalence of disk-like galaxies at very high redshifts is crucial for constraining the early formation of angular momentum-supported structures. The advent of JWST now permits rest-frame UV and optical morphological studies deep into cosmic epochs where disks have traditionally been considered uncommon. We apply an identical denoising VAE-GCNN classification pipeline to multi-filter JWST/NIRCam cutouts in order to obtain homogeneous, morphology-based disk fractions across the sample. Our approach comprises two steps: (i) a U-Net Variational Autoencoder (VAE) is trained to remove astrophysical and instrumental contaminants while preserving intrinsic morphology, and (ii) a rotation - and reflection - equivariant GCNN classifier is applied to the denoised cutouts to distinguish disk-like galaxies from non-disks. We determine the fraction of disk-like galaxies as 0.34 for a sample of JWST 100 galaxies over the redshift range 4 < z < 7.7, also in dependence on the galaxy mass range. Our GCNN-based morphological analysis indicates that disk-like systems constitute a significant fraction of the considered high-redshift population and underscore the importance of such studies for the models of disk formation in the first billion years. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_14599 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Disk-like galaxies at 4 < z < 7.7 : JWST/NIRCam morphologies revealed by denoising VAE-GCNN classification Mirzoyan, S. S. Avagyan, A. Gurzadyan, V. G. Astrophysics of Galaxies Understanding the prevalence of disk-like galaxies at very high redshifts is crucial for constraining the early formation of angular momentum-supported structures. The advent of JWST now permits rest-frame UV and optical morphological studies deep into cosmic epochs where disks have traditionally been considered uncommon. We apply an identical denoising VAE-GCNN classification pipeline to multi-filter JWST/NIRCam cutouts in order to obtain homogeneous, morphology-based disk fractions across the sample. Our approach comprises two steps: (i) a U-Net Variational Autoencoder (VAE) is trained to remove astrophysical and instrumental contaminants while preserving intrinsic morphology, and (ii) a rotation - and reflection - equivariant GCNN classifier is applied to the denoised cutouts to distinguish disk-like galaxies from non-disks. We determine the fraction of disk-like galaxies as 0.34 for a sample of JWST 100 galaxies over the redshift range 4 < z < 7.7, also in dependence on the galaxy mass range. Our GCNN-based morphological analysis indicates that disk-like systems constitute a significant fraction of the considered high-redshift population and underscore the importance of such studies for the models of disk formation in the first billion years. |
| title | Disk-like galaxies at 4 < z < 7.7 : JWST/NIRCam morphologies revealed by denoising VAE-GCNN classification |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14599 |