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Abstract We present new Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) 3.6 and 4.5 μ m mosaics of three fields, E-COSMOS, DEEP2-F3, and ELAIS-N1. Our mosaics include both new IRAC observations as well as reprocessed archival data in these fields. These fields are part of the HSC-Deep grizy survey and have a wealth of additional ancillary data. The addition of these new IRAC mosaics is critical in allowing for improved photometric redshifts and stellar population parameters at cosmic noon and earlier epochs. The total area mapped by this work is ∼17 deg 2 with a mean integration time of ≈1200s, providing a median 5 σ depth of 23.7(23.3) at 3.6(4.5) μ m in AB. We perform SExtractor photometry both on the combined mosaics as well as the single-epoch mosaics taken ≈6 months apart. The resultant IRAC number counts show good agreement with previous studies. In combination with the wealth of existing and upcoming spectrophotometric data in these fields, our IRAC mosaics will enable a wide range of galactic evolution and AGN studies. With that goal in mind, we make the combined IRAC mosaics and coverage maps of these three fields publicly available. 

We present new [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$] 88-$\mu \mathrm{{m}}$ observations of five bright z ∼ 7 Lyman-break galaxies spectroscopically confirmed by ALMA through [${\rm C\, {\small II}}$] 158 $\mu \mathrm{{m}}$, unlike recent [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$] detections where Lyman α was used. This nearly doubles the sample of Epoch of Reionization galaxies with robust (5σ) [${\rm C\, {\small II}}$] and [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$] detections. We perform a multiwavelength comparison with new deep HST images of the rest-frame UV, whose compact morphology aligns well with [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$] tracing ionized gas. In contrast, we find more spatially extended [${\rm C\, {\small II}}$] emission likely produced in neutral gas, as indicated by an [${\rm N\, {\small II}}$] 205-$\mu \mathrm{{m}}$ non-detection in one source. We find a correlation between the optical ${[{\rm O\, {\small III}}]}+ {\mathrm{H\,\beta }}$ equivalent width and [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$]/[${\rm C\, {\small II}}$], as seen in local metal-poor dwarf galaxies. cloudy models of a nebula of typical density harbouring a young stellar population with a high-ionization parameter adequately reproduce the observed lines. Surprisingly, however, our models fail to reproduce the strength of [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$] 88-$\mu \mathrm{{m}}$, unless we assume an α/Fe enhancement and near-solar nebular oxygen abundance. On spatially resolved scales, we find [${\rm O\, {\small III}}$]/[${\rm C\, {\small II}}$] shows a tentative anticorrelation with infrared excess, LIR/LUV, also seen on global scales in the local Universe. Finally, we introduce the far-infrared spectral energy distribution fitting code mercurius to show that dust-continuum measurements of one source appear to favour a low dust temperature and correspondingly high dust mass. This implies a high stellar metallicity yield and may point towards the need of dust production or grain-growth mechanisms beyond supernovae.

 

In 2022 November, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) returned deep near-infrared images of A2744—a powerful lensing cluster capable of magnifying distant, incipient galaxies beyond it. Together with existing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, this publicly available data set opens a fundamentally new discovery space to understand the remaining mysteries of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. In this work, we detect and measure some 60,000 objects across the 49 arcmin²JWST footprint down to a 5σlimiting magnitude of ∼30 mag in 0.″32 apertures. Photometry is performed using circular apertures on images matched to the point-spread function (PSF) of the reddest NIRCam broad band, F444W, and cleaned of bright cluster galaxies and the related intracluster light. To give an impression of the photometric performance, we measure photometric redshifts and achieve aσ_NMAD≈ 0.03 based on known, but relatively small, spectroscopic samples. With this paper, we publicly release our HST and JWST PSF-matched photometric catalog with optimally assigned aperture sizes for easy use, along with single aperture catalogs, photometric redshifts, rest-frame colors, and individual magnification estimates. These catalogs will set the stage for efficient and deep spectroscopic follow up of some of the first JWST-selected samples in summer of 2023.

 

Recent work has shown that UV-luminous reionization-era galaxies often exhibit strong Lyman-alpha emission despite being situated at redshifts where the IGM is thought to be substantially neutral. It has been argued that this enhanced Ly α transmission reflects the presence of massive galaxies in overdense regions which power large ionized bubbles. An alternative explanation is that massive galaxies shift more of their Ly α profile to large velocities (relative to the systemic redshift) where the IGM damping wing absorption is reduced. Such a mass-dependent trend is seen at lower redshifts, but whether one exists at z ∼ 7 remains unclear owing to the small number of existing systemic redshift measurements in the reionization era. This is now changing with the emergence of [C ii]-based redshifts from ALMA. Here, we report MMT/Binospec Ly α spectroscopy of eight UV-bright (MUV ∼ −22) galaxies at z ≃ 7 selected from the ALMA REBELS survey. We detect Ly α in four of eight galaxies and use the [C ii] systemic redshifts to investigate the Ly α velocity profiles. The Ly α lines are significantly redshifted from systemic (average velocity offset = 223 km s–1) and broad (FWHM ≈ 300–650 km s−1), with two sources showing emission extending to ≈750 km s−1. We find that the broadest Ly α profiles are associated with the largest [C ii] line widths, suggesting a potential link between the Ly α FWHM and the dynamical mass. Since Ly α photons at high velocities transmit efficiently through the z = 7 IGM, our data suggest that velocity profiles play a significant role in boosting the Ly α visibility of the most UV-luminous reionization-era galaxies.

 

ABSTRACT Reionization-era galaxies tend to exhibit weak Ly α emission, likely reflecting attenuation from an increasingly neutral IGM. Recent observations have begun to reveal exceptions to this picture, with strong Ly α emission now known in four of the most massive z = 7–9 galaxies in the CANDELS fields, all of which also exhibit intense [O iii]+H β emission (EW > 800 Å). To better understand why Ly α is anomalously strong in a subset of massive z ≃ 7–9 galaxies, we have initiated an MMT/Binospec survey targeting a larger sample (N = 22) of similarly luminous (≃1–6 L$^{\ast }_{\mathrm{UV}}$) z ≃ 7 galaxies selected over very wide-area fields (∼3 deg2). We confidently (>7σ) detect Ly α in 78 per cent (7/9) of galaxies with strong [O iii]+H β emission (EW > 800 Å) as opposed to only 8 per cent (1/12) of galaxies with more moderate (EW = 200–800 Å) [O iii]+H β. We argue that the higher Ly α EWs of the strong [O iii]+H β population likely reflect enhanced ionizing photon production efficiency owing to their large sSFRs (≳30 Gyr−1). We also find evidence that Ly α transmission from massive galaxies declines less rapidly over 6 < z < 7 than in low-mass lensed systems. In particular, our data suggest no strong evolution in Ly α transmission, consistent with a picture wherein massive z ≃ 7 galaxies often reside in large ionized regions. We detect three closely separated (R = 1.7 physical Mpc) z ≃ 7 Ly α emitters in our sample, conceivably tracing a large ionized structure that is consistent with this picture. We detect tentative evidence for an overdensity in this region, implying a large ionizing photon budget in the surrounding volume. 

Cosmic dust is an essential component shaping both the evolution of galaxies and their observational signatures. How quickly dust builds up in the early Universe remains an open question that requires deep observations at (sub-)millimetre wavelengths to resolve. Here, we use Atacama Large Millimeter Array observations of 45 galaxies from the Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) and its pilot programs, designed to target [C ii] and dust emission in UV-selected galaxies at z ∼ 7, to investigate the dust content of high-redshift galaxies through a stacking analysis. We find that the typical fraction of obscured star formation fobs = SFRIR/SFRUV+IR depends on stellar mass, similar to what is observed at lower redshift, and ranges from fobs ≈ 0.3 − 0.6 for galaxies with log10(M⋆/M⊙) = 9.4–10.4. We further adopt the z ∼ 7 stellar mass function from the literature to extract the obscured cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD) from the REBELS survey. Our results suggest only a modest decrease in the SFRD between 3 ≲ z ≲ 7, with dust-obscured star formation still contributing ${\sim}30{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ at z ∼ 7. While we extensively discuss potential caveats, our analysis highlights the continued importance of dust-obscured star formation even well into the epoch of reionization.

 

In this work, we publish stellar velocity dispersions, sizes, and dynamical masses for eight ultramassive galaxies (UMGs;$\log (M_{*}/M_{\odot })$> 11),z≳ 3) from the Massive Ancient Galaxies Atz> 3 NEar-infrared (MAGAZ3NE) Survey, more than doubling the number of such galaxies with velocity dispersion measurements at this epoch. Using the deep Keck/MOSFIRE and Keck/NIRES spectroscopy of these objects in theHandKbandpasses, we obtain large velocity dispersions of ∼400 km s⁻¹for most of the objects, which are some of the highest stellar velocity dispersions measured and ∼40% larger than those measured for galaxies of similar mass atz∼ 1.7. The sizes of these objects are also smaller by a factor of 1.5–3 compared to this samez∼ 1.7 sample. We combine these large velocity dispersions and small sizes to obtain dynamical masses. The dynamical masses are similar to the stellar masses of these galaxies, consistent with a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF). Considered alongside previous studies of massive quiescent galaxies across 0.2 <z< 4.0, there is evidence for an evolution in the relation between the dynamical mass–stellar mass ratio and velocity dispersion as a function of redshift. This implies an IMF with fewer low-mass stars (e.g., Chabrier IMF) for massive quiescent galaxies at higher redshifts in conflict with the bottom-heavy IMF (e.g., Salpeter IMF) found in their likelyz∼ 0 descendants, though a number of alternative explanations such as a different dynamical structure or significant rotation are not ruled out. Similar to data at lower redshifts, we see evidence for an increase of IMF normalization with velocity dispersion, though thez≳ 3 trend is steeper than that forz∼ 0.2 early-type galaxies and offset to lower dynamical-to-stellar mass ratios.

 

We present specific star formation rates (sSFRs) for 40 ultraviolet (UV)-bright galaxies at z ∼ 7–8 observed as part of the Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) large programme. The sSFRs are derived using improved star formation rate (SFR) calibrations and spectral energy distribution (SED)-based stellar masses, made possible by measurements of far-infrared (FIR) continuum emission and [C ii]-based spectroscopic redshifts. The median sSFR of the sample is $18_{-5}^{+7}$ Gyr−1, significantly larger than literature measurements lacking constraints in the FIR, reflecting the larger obscured SFRs derived from the dust continuum relative to that implied by the UV+optical SED. We suggest that such differences may reflect spatial variations in dust across these luminous galaxies, with the component dominating the FIR distinct from that dominating the UV. We demonstrate that the inferred stellar masses (and hence sSFRs) are strongly dependent on the assumed star formation history in reionization-era galaxies. When large sSFR galaxies (a population that is common at z > 6) are modelled with non-parametric star formation histories, the derived stellar masses can increase by an order of magnitude relative to constant star formation models, owing to the presence of a significant old stellar population that is outshined by the recent burst. The [C ii] line widths in the largest sSFR systems are often very broad, suggesting dynamical masses capable of accommodating an old stellar population suggested by non-parametric models. Regardless of these systematic uncertainties among derived parameters, we find that sSFRs increase rapidly toward higher redshifts for massive galaxies (9.6 < log (M*/M⊙) < 9.8), evolving as (1 + z)1.7 ± 0.3, broadly consistent with expectations from the evolving baryon accretion rates.