JADES Imaging of GN-z11: Revealing the Morphology and Environment of a Luminous Galaxy 430 Myr after the Big Bang

Tacchella, S ORCID: 0000-0002-8224-4505, Eisenstein, DJ ORCID: 0000-0002-2929-3121, Hainline, K ORCID: 0000-0003-4565-8239, Johnson, BD ORCID: 0000-0002-9280-7594, Baker, WM ORCID: 0000-0003-0215-1104, Helton, JM ORCID: 0000-0003-4337-6211, Robertson, B ORCID: 0000-0002-4271-0364, Suess, KA ORCID: 0000-0002-1714-1905, Chen, Z ORCID: 0000-0002-2178-5471, Nelson, E ORCID: 0000-0002-7524-374X, Puskás, D ORCID: 0000-0001-8630-2031, Sun, F ORCID: 0000-0002-4622-6617, Alberts, S ORCID: 0000-0002-8909-8782, Egami, E ORCID: 0000-0003-1344-9475, Hausen, R ORCID: 0000-0002-8543-761X, Rieke, G ORCID: 0000-0003-2303-6519, Rieke, M ORCID: 0000-0002-7893-6170, Shivaei, I ORCID: 0000-0003-4702-7561, Williams, CC ORCID: 0000-0003-2919-7495, Willmer, CNA ORCID: 0000-0001-9262-9997 et al (2023) JADES Imaging of GN-z11: Revealing the Morphology and Environment of a Luminous Galaxy 430 Myr after the Big Bang. Astrophysical Journal, 952 (1). ISSN 0004-637X

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Abstract

We present JWST NIRCam nine-band near-infrared imaging of the luminous z = 10.6 galaxy GN-z11 from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey of the GOODS-N field. We find a spectral energy distribution (SED) entirely consistent with the expected form of a high-redshift galaxy: a clear blue continuum from 1.5 to 4 μm with a complete dropout in F115W. The core of GN-z11 is extremely compact in JWST imaging. We analyze the image with a two-component model, using a point source and a Sérsic profile that fits to a half-light radius of 200 pc and an index n = 0.9. We find a low-surface-brightness haze about 0.″4 to the northeast of the galaxy, which is most likely a foreground object but might be a more extended component of GN-z11. At a spectroscopic redshift of 10.60 (Bunker et al. 2023), the comparison of the NIRCam F410M and F444W images spans the Balmer jump. From population-synthesis modeling, here assuming no light from an active galactic nucleus, we reproduce the SED of GN-z11, finding a stellar mass of ∼109 M ⊙, a star formation rate of ∼20 M ⊙ yr−1, and a young stellar age of ∼20 Myr. Since massive galaxies at high redshift are likely to be highly clustered, we search for faint neighbors of GN-z11, finding nine galaxies out to ∼5 comoving Mpc transverse with photometric redshifts consistent with z = 10.6, and a tenth more tentative dropout only 3″ away. This is consistent with GN-z11 being hosted by a massive dark-matter halo (≈8 × 1010 M ⊙), though lower halo masses cannot be ruled out.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics; 0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural); Astronomy & Astrophysics
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	American Astronomical Society
Date of acceptance:	2 June 2023
Date of first compliant Open Access:	13 December 2023
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2023 09:37
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2025 15:15
DOI or ID number:	10.3847/1538-4357/acdbc6
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/22087

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