2025MNRAS.539.2685L -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 539, 2685-2706 (2025/May-3)
JWST PRIMER: a lack of outshining in four normal z = 4 - 6 galaxies from the ALMA-CRISTAL Survey.
LINES N.E.P., BOWLER R.A.A., ADAMS N.J., FISHER R., VARADARAJ R.G., NAKAZATO Y., ARAVENA M., ASSEF R.J., BIRKIN J.E., CEVERINO D., DA CUNHA E., CULLEN F., DE LOOZE I., DONNAN C.T., DUNLOP J.S., FERRARA A., GROGIN N.A., HERRERA-CAMUS R., IKEDA R., KOEKEMOER A.M., KILLI M., LI J., McLEOD D.J., McLURE R.J., MITSUHASHI I., PEREZ-GONZALEZ P.G., RELANO M., SOLIMANO M., SPILKER J.S., VILLANUEVA V. and YOSHIDA N.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present a spatially resolved analysis of four star-forming galaxies at $z = 4.44-5.64$ using data from the JWST Public Release Imaging for Extragalactic Research (PRIMER) and ALMA-[C II] Resolved ISm in STar-forming galaxies with ALma (CRISTAL) surveys to probe the stellar and interstellar medium properties on the sub-${\rm kpc}$ scale. In the $1-5\, \mu {\rm m}$ JWST NIRCam imaging we find that the galaxies are composed of multiple clumps (between 2 and ∼8) separated by $\simeq 5\, {\rm kpc}$, with comparable morphologies and sizes in the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) and optical. Using BAGPIPES to perform pixel-by-pixel spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to the JWST data, we show that the star formation rate (SFR) ($\simeq 25\, {\rm M}_{\odot }\,{\rm yr^{ -1}}$) and stellar mass (${\rm log}_{10}(M_{\star }/{\rm M}_{\odot })$ $\simeq 9.5$) derived from the resolved analysis are in close ($\lesssim 0.3\, {\rm dex}$) agreement with those obtained by fitting the integrated photometry. In contrast to studies of lower mass sources, we thus find a reduced impact of outshining of the older (more massive) stellar populations in these normal $z \simeq 5$ galaxies. Our JWST analysis recovers bluer rest-frame UV slopes ($\beta \simeq -2.1$) and younger ages ($\simeq 100\, {\rm Myr}$) than archival values. We find that the dust continuum from ALMA-CRISTAL seen in two of these galaxies correlates, as expected, with regions of redder rest-frame UV slopes and the SED-derived ${A_{\rm V}}$, as well as the peak in the stellar mass map. We compute the resolved ${\rm IRX}$-$\beta$relation, showing that the IRX is consistent with the local starburst attenuation curve and further demonstrating the presence of an inhomogeneous dust distribution within the galaxies. A comparison of the CRISTAL sources to those from the FirstLight zoom-in simulation of galaxies with the same $M_{\star }$ and SFR reveals similar age and colour gradients, suggesting that major mergers may be important in the formation of clumpy galaxies at this epoch.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
galaxies: high-redshift - galaxies: irregular - galaxies: ISM - galaxies:star formation
Simbad objects:
8
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