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De Barros, S, Oesch, PA, Labbe, I, Stefanon, M, Gonzalez, V, Smit, R, Bouwens, RJ and Illingworth, GD (2019) The GREATS H β + [O III] luminosity function and galaxy properties at z ∼ 8: walking the way of JWST. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 489 (2). pp. 2355-2366. ISSN 0035-8711
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Abstract
The James Webb Space Telescope will allow to spectroscopically study an unprecedented number of galaxies deep into the reionization era, notably by detecting [O III]λλ4959, 5007, and H β nebular emission lines. To efficiently prepare such observations, we photometrically select a large sample of galaxies at z ∼ 8 and study their rest-frame optical emission lines. Combining data from the GOODS Re-ionization Era wide-Area Treasury from Spitzer (GREATS) survey and from HST we perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, using synthetic SEDs from a large grid of photoionization models. The deep Spitzer/IRAC data combined with our models exploring a large parameter space enables to constrain the [O III] + H β fluxes and equivalent widths for our sample, as well as the average physical properties of z ∼ 8 galaxies, such as the ionizing photon production efficiency with log(ξion/erg−1Hz)≥25.77. We find a relatively tight correlation between the [O III] + H β and UV luminosity, which we use to derive for the first time the [O III]λλ4959, 5007 + H β luminosity function (LF) at z ∼ 8. The z ∼ 8 [O III] + H β LF is higher at all luminosities compared to lower redshift, as opposed to the UV LF, due to an increase of the [O III] + H β luminosity at a given UV luminosity from z ∼ 3 to z ∼ 8. Finally, using the [O III] + H β LF, we make predictions for JWST/NIRSpec number counts of z ∼ 8 galaxies. We find that the current wide-area extragalactic legacy fields are too shallow to use JWST at maximal efficiency for z ∼ 8 spectroscopy even at 1 h depth and JWST pre-imaging to ≳30 mag will be required.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2019 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Science & Technology; Physical Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: high-redshift; reionization; STAR-FORMING GALAXIES; STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS; LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES; LY ALPHA-EMITTERS; PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES; NEBULAR EMISSION; FORMATION RATES; EVOLUTION; DENSITY; POPULATION; Science & Technology; Physical Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: high-redshift; reionization; STAR-FORMING GALAXIES; STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS; LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES; LY ALPHA-EMITTERS; PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES; NEBULAR EMISSION; FORMATION RATES; EVOLUTION; DENSITY; POPULATION; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics |
| Divisions: | Astrophysics Research Institute |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| SWORD Depositor: | A Symplectic |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Nov 2022 12:16 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Nov 2022 12:30 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1093/mnras/stz940 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/18131 |
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