REBELS-IFU: dust attenuation curves of 12 massive galaxies at z ≈ 7

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Fisher, R orcid iconORCID: 0009-0008-3946-0502, Bowler, RAA orcid iconORCID: 0000-0003-3917-1678, Stefanon, M, Rowland, LE orcid iconORCID: 0009-0009-2671-4160, Algera, HSB orcid iconORCID: 0000-0002-4205-9567, Aravena, M, Bouwens, R, Dayal, P orcid iconORCID: 0000-0001-8460-1564, Ferrara, A, Fudamoto, Y, Gulis, C, Hodge, JA, Inami, H orcid iconORCID: 0000-0003-4268-0393, Ormerod, K orcid iconORCID: 0000-0003-2000-3420, Pallottini, A orcid iconORCID: 0000-0002-7129-5761, Phillips, SG orcid iconORCID: 0000-0003-4652-1090, Sartorio, NS orcid iconORCID: 0000-0003-2138-5192, Schouws, S, Smit, R orcid iconORCID: 0000-0001-8034-7802, Sommovigo, L orcid iconORCID: 0000-0002-2906-2200 et al (2025) REBELS-IFU: dust attenuation curves of 12 massive galaxies at z ≈ 7. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 539 (1). pp. 109-126. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

We present measurements of the dust attenuation curves of 12 massive (9 < log(M∗/M⊙) < 10) Lyman-break galaxies at z = 6.5-7.7 derived from JWST NIRSpec integral field unit spectroscopy. The galaxies are drawn from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) large program. The dust attenuation curves were obtained by fitting spectral energy distribution (SED) models with a flexible dust attenuation curve to the full galaxy spectra over observed wavelengths 0.6-5.3 μm. These attenuation curves show a range of recovered slopes (-0.41 ≤ δ ≤ 0.09) that are on average slightly flatter than seen in local sources of the same stellar masses, with none exhibiting very steep slopes. Three galaxies exhibit evidence for a 2175 Å dust bump (>4σ) and we find that SED fitting excluding the bump can overestimate derived stellar masses by up to 0.4 dex. Correcting for the dust attenuation with our best-fitting attenuation curves, we recover a range of intrinsic ultraviolet slopes (-2.4 < β0 < - 2.0). The galaxies show moderate reddening (AV, stellar = 0.1-0.6 mag) and the AV, stellar to stellar mass relation is consistent with local sources. The attenuation curve slope is found to correlate with AV, stellar, while we see no strong correlation with stellar mass, MUV, or gas-phase metallicity. Overall, our results show little evolution in dust properties in the REBELS sources compared to the local Universe. Comparing our recovered trends to empirical models suggests that the most important factor driving the variation in the attenuation curves in our sample is the dust-star geometry, not the properties of the dust grains themselves.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: dust, extinction; galaxies: high-redshift; 5109 Space 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
Divisions: Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date of acceptance: 21 March 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access: 10 June 2026
Date Deposited: 10 Jun 2026 14:25
Last Modified: 10 Jun 2026 14:25
DOI or ID number: 10.1093/mnras/staf485
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28802
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