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Boyett, K, Bunker, AJ, Curtis-Lake, E, Chevallard, J, Cameron, AJ, Jones, GC, Saxena, A, Charlot, S, Curti, M, Wallace, IEB, Arribas, S, Carniani, S, Willott, C, Alberts, S, Eisenstein, DJ, Hainline, K, Hausen, R, Johnson, BD, Rieke, M, Robertson, B , Stark, DP, Tacchella, S, Williams, CC, Chen, Z, Egami, E, Endsley, R, Kumari, N, Laseter, I, Looser, TJ, Maseda, MV, Scholtz, J, Shivaei, I, Simmonds, C, Smit, R, Übler, H and Witstok, J (2024) Extreme emission line galaxies detected in JADES JWST/NIRSpec – I. Inferred galaxy properties. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 535 (2). pp. 1796-1828. ISSN 0035-8711
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Extreme emission line galaxies detected in JADES JWST NIRSpec I. Inferred galaxy properties.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (8MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs) exhibit large equivalent widths (EW) in their rest-optical emission lines ([O III]λ5007 or H α rest-frame EW> 750 Å) which can be tied to a recent upturn in star formation rate (SFR), due to the sensitivity of the nebular line emission and the rest-optical continuum to young (< 10 Myr) and evolved stellar populations, respectively. By studying a sample of 85 star-forming galaxies (SFGs), spanning the redshift and magnitude interval 3 < z < 9.5 and −16 >MUV > −21, in the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) with NIRSpec/prism spectroscopy, we determine that SFGs initiate an EELG phase when entering a significant burst of star formation, with the highest EWs observed in EELGs with the youngest luminosity-weighted ages (< 5 Myr) and the highest burst intensity (those with the greatest excess between their current and long-term average SFR). We spectroscopically confirm that a greater proportion of SFGs are in an EELG phase at high redshift in our UV-selected sample (61 ± 4 per cent in our z > 5.7 high-redshift bin, compared to 23+−14% in our lowest redshift bin 3 < z < 4.1) due to the combined evolution of metallicity, ionization parameter, and star formation histories with redshift. We report that the EELGs within our sample exhibit a higher average ionization efficiency (log10(ξionHII/erg−1Hz) = 25.5 ± 0.2) than the non-EELGs. High-redshift EELGs therefore comprise a population of efficient ionizing photon producers. Additionally, we report that 53 per cent (9/17) of EELGs at z > 5.7 have observed Ly α emission, potentially lying within large ionized regions. The high detection rate of Ly α emitters in our EELG selection suggests that the physical conditions associated with entering an EELG phase also promote the escape of Ly α photons.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences |
| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics |
| Divisions: | Astrophysics Research Institute |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
| SWORD Depositor: | A Symplectic |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Apr 2025 10:43 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Apr 2025 10:45 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1093/mnras/stae2430 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26252 |
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