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Creators/Authors contains: "Ravindranath, Swara"

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  1. Abstract The UltraViolet imaging of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey Fields (UVCANDELS) program provides Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/UVIS F275W imaging for four CANDELS fields. We combine this UV imaging with existing HST/near-IR grism spectroscopy from 3D-HST+AGHAST to directly compare the resolved rest-frame UV and H α emission for a sample of 979 galaxies at 0.7 < z < 1.5, spanning a range in stellar mass of 10 8−11.5 M ⊙ . Using a stacking analysis, we perform a resolved comparison between homogenized maps of rest-UV and H α to compute the average UV-to-H α luminosity ratio (an indicator of burstiness in star formation) as a function of galactocentric radius. We find that galaxies below stellar mass of ∼10 9.5 M ⊙ , at all radii, have a UV-to-H α ratio higher than the equilibrium value expected from constant star formation, indicating a significant contribution from bursty star formation. Even for galaxies with stellar mass ≳10 9.5 M ⊙ , the UV-to-H α ratio is elevated toward their outskirts ( R / R eff > 1.5), suggesting that bursty star formation is likely prevalent in the outskirts of even the most massive galaxies, but is likely overshadowed by their brighter cores. Furthermore, we present the UV-to-H α ratio as a function of galaxy surface brightness, a proxy for stellar mass surface density, and find that regions below ∼10 7.5 M ⊙ kpc −2 are consistent with bursty star formation, regardless of their galaxy stellar mass, potentially suggesting that local star formation is independent of global galaxy properties at the smallest scales. Last, we find galaxies at z > 1.1 to have bursty star formation, regardless of radius or surface brightness. 
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  2. Abstract The 3D geometries of high-redshift galaxies remain poorly understood. We build a differentiable Bayesian model and use Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to efficiently and robustly infer the 3D shapes of star-forming galaxies in James Webb Space Telescope Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science observations with log M * / M = 9.0 10.5 atz= 0.5–8.0. We reproduce previous results from the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey in a fraction of the computing time and constrain the mean ellipticity, triaxiality, size, and covariances with samples as small as ∼50 galaxies. We find high 3D ellipticities for all mass–redshift bins, suggesting oblate (disky) or prolate (elongated) geometries. We break that degeneracy by constraining the mean triaxiality to be ∼1 for log M * / M = 9.0 9.5 dwarfs atz> 1 (favoring the prolate scenario), with significantly lower triaxialities for higher masses and lower redshifts indicating the emergence of disks. The prolate population traces out a “banana” in the projected b / a log a diagram with an excess of low-b/a, large- log a galaxies. The dwarf prolate fraction rises from ∼25% atz= 0.5–1.0 to ∼50%–80% atz= 3–8. Our results imply a second kind of disk settling from oval (triaxial) to more circular (axisymmetric) shapes with time. We simultaneously constrain the 3D size–mass relation and its dependence on 3D geometry. High-probability prolate and oblate candidates show remarkably similar Sérsic indices (n∼ 1), nonparametric morphological properties, and specific star formation rates. Both tend to be visually classified as disks or irregular, but edge-on oblate candidates show more dust attenuation. We discuss selection effects, follow-up prospects, and theoretical implications. 
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  3. Abstract The gravitationally lensed star WHL 0137–LS, nicknamed Earendel, was identified with a photometric redshift z phot = 6.2 ± 0.1 based on images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Here we present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Camera images of Earendel in eight filters spanning 0.8–5.0 μ m. In these higher-resolution images, Earendel remains a single unresolved point source on the lensing critical curve, increasing the lower limit on the lensing magnification to μ > 4000 and restricting the source plane radius further to r < 0.02 pc, or ∼4000 au. These new observations strengthen the conclusion that Earendel is best explained by an individual star or multiple star system and support the previous photometric redshift estimate. Fitting grids of stellar spectra to our photometry yields a stellar temperature of T eff ≃ 13,000–16,000 K, assuming the light is dominated by a single star. The delensed bolometric luminosity in this case ranges from log ( L ) = 5.8 to 6.6 L ⊙ , which is in the range where one expects luminous blue variable stars. Follow-up observations, including JWST NIRSpec scheduled for late 2022, are needed to further unravel the nature of this object, which presents a unique opportunity to study massive stars in the first billion years of the universe. 
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  4. Abstract In the local universe, OH megamasers (OHMs) are detected almost exclusively in infrared-luminous galaxies, with a prevalence that increases with IR luminosity, suggesting that they trace gas-rich galaxy mergers. Given the proximity of the rest frequencies of OH and the hyperfine transition of neutral atomic hydrogen (Hi), radio surveys to probe the cosmic evolution of Hiin galaxies also offer exciting prospects for exploiting OHMs to probe the cosmic history of gas-rich mergers. Using observations for the Looking At the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array (LADUMA) deep Hisurvey, we report the first untargeted detection of an OHM atz> 0.5, LADUMA J033046.20−275518.1 (nicknamed “Nkalakatha”). The host system, WISEA J033046.26−275518.3, is an infrared-luminous radio galaxy whose optical redshiftz≈ 0.52 confirms the MeerKAT emission-line detection as OH at a redshiftzOH= 0.5225 ± 0.0001 rather than Hiat lower redshift. The detected spectral line has 18.4σpeak significance, a width of 459 ± 59 km s−1, and an integrated luminosity of (6.31 ± 0.18 [statistical] ± 0.31 [systematic]) × 103L, placing it among the most luminous OHMs known. The galaxy’s far-infrared luminosityLFIR= (1.576 ±0.013) × 1012Lmarks it as an ultraluminous infrared galaxy; its ratio of OH and infrared luminosities is similar to those for lower-redshift OHMs. A comparison between optical and OH redshifts offers a slight indication of an OH outflow. This detection represents the first step toward a systematic exploitation of OHMs as a tracer of galaxy growth at high redshifts. 
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