A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy

Themiya Nanayakkara; Karl Glazebrook; Colin Jacobs; Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij; Corentin Schreiber; Gabriel Brammer; James Esdaile; Glenn G. Kacprzak; Ivo Labbe; Claudia Lagos; Danilo Marchesini; Z. Cemile Marsan; Pascal A. Oesch; Casey Papovich; Rhea Silvia Remus; Kim Vy H. Tran

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4

A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy

Themiya Nanayakkara, Karl Glazebrook, Colin Jacobs, Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij, Corentin Schreiber, Gabriel Brammer, James Esdaile, Glenn G. Kacprzak, Ivo Labbe, Claudia Lagos, Danilo Marchesini, Z. Cemile Marsan, Pascal A. Oesch, Casey Papovich, Rhea Silvia Remus, Kim Vy H. Tran

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)

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29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Here we present a sample of 12 massive quiescent galaxy candidates at z∼3-4 observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These galaxies were pre-selected from the Hubble Space Telescope imaging and 10 of our sources were unable to be spectroscopically confirmed by ground based spectroscopy. By combining spectroscopic data from NIRSpec with multi-wavelength imaging data from the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), we analyse their stellar populations and their formation histories. We find that all of our galaxies classify as quiescent based on the reconstruction of their star formation histories but show a variety of quenching timescales and ages. All our galaxies are massive (∼0.1-1.2×10¹¹ M_⊙), with masses comparable to massive galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the oldest galaxy in our sample formed ∼1.0×10¹¹ M_⊙ of mass within the first few hundred million years of the Universe and has been quenched for more than a billion years by the time of observation at z∼3.2 (∼2 billion years after the Big Bang). Our results point to very early formation of massive galaxies requiring a high conversion rate of baryons to stars in the early Universe.

Original language	English
Article number	3724
Number of pages	14
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	14
Issue number	1
Early online date	14 Feb 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024

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10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4Licence: CC BY

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Nanayakkara, T., Glazebrook, K., Jacobs, C., Kawinwanichakij, L., Schreiber, C., Brammer, G., Esdaile, J., Kacprzak, G. G., Labbe, I., Lagos, C., Marchesini, D., Marsan, Z. C., Oesch, P. A., Papovich, C., Remus, R. S., & Tran, K. V. H. (2024). A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy. Scientific Reports, 14(1), Article 3724. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4

@article{82b609dd48604ad59a30b78ac7373b45,

title = "A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy",

abstract = "Here we present a sample of 12 massive quiescent galaxy candidates at z∼3-4 observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These galaxies were pre-selected from the Hubble Space Telescope imaging and 10 of our sources were unable to be spectroscopically confirmed by ground based spectroscopy. By combining spectroscopic data from NIRSpec with multi-wavelength imaging data from the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), we analyse their stellar populations and their formation histories. We find that all of our galaxies classify as quiescent based on the reconstruction of their star formation histories but show a variety of quenching timescales and ages. All our galaxies are massive (∼0.1-1.2×1011 M⊙), with masses comparable to massive galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the oldest galaxy in our sample formed ∼1.0×1011 M⊙ of mass within the first few hundred million years of the Universe and has been quenched for more than a billion years by the time of observation at z∼3.2 (∼2 billion years after the Big Bang). Our results point to very early formation of massive galaxies requiring a high conversion rate of baryons to stars in the early Universe.",

author = "Themiya Nanayakkara and Karl Glazebrook and Colin Jacobs and Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij and Corentin Schreiber and Gabriel Brammer and James Esdaile and Kacprzak, {Glenn G.} and Ivo Labbe and Claudia Lagos and Danilo Marchesini and Marsan, {Z. Cemile} and Oesch, {Pascal A.} and Casey Papovich and Remus, {Rhea Silvia} and Tran, {Kim Vy H.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with program 2565. We thank all the hard work of the JWST team which made this great observatory possible. We thank Michael Maseda and Allison Strom for helpful discussions during the data reduction process. T.N., K. G., and C.J. acknowledge support from Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100060. This work has benefited from funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) under Grant DNRF140. P.O. is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through project Grant 200020_207349. This work received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Crown 2024.",

year = "2024",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

journal = "Scientific Reports",

issn = "2045-2322",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group - Macmillan Publishers",

number = "1",

}

Nanayakkara, T, Glazebrook, K, Jacobs, C, Kawinwanichakij, L, Schreiber, C, Brammer, G, Esdaile, J, Kacprzak, GG, Labbe, I, Lagos, C, Marchesini, D, Marsan, ZC, Oesch, PA, Papovich, C, Remus, RS & Tran, KVH 2024, 'A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy', Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, 3724. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4

TY - JOUR

T1 - A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy

AU - Nanayakkara, Themiya

AU - Glazebrook, Karl

AU - Jacobs, Colin

AU - Kawinwanichakij, Lalitwadee

AU - Schreiber, Corentin

AU - Brammer, Gabriel

AU - Esdaile, James

AU - Kacprzak, Glenn G.

AU - Labbe, Ivo

AU - Lagos, Claudia

AU - Marchesini, Danilo

AU - Marsan, Z. Cemile

AU - Oesch, Pascal A.

AU - Papovich, Casey

AU - Remus, Rhea Silvia

AU - Tran, Kim Vy H.

N1 - Funding Information: This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with program 2565. We thank all the hard work of the JWST team which made this great observatory possible. We thank Michael Maseda and Allison Strom for helpful discussions during the data reduction process. T.N., K. G., and C.J. acknowledge support from Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100060. This work has benefited from funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) under Grant DNRF140. P.O. is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through project Grant 200020_207349. This work received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Publisher Copyright: © Crown 2024.

PY - 2024/2

Y1 - 2024/2

N2 - Here we present a sample of 12 massive quiescent galaxy candidates at z∼3-4 observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These galaxies were pre-selected from the Hubble Space Telescope imaging and 10 of our sources were unable to be spectroscopically confirmed by ground based spectroscopy. By combining spectroscopic data from NIRSpec with multi-wavelength imaging data from the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), we analyse their stellar populations and their formation histories. We find that all of our galaxies classify as quiescent based on the reconstruction of their star formation histories but show a variety of quenching timescales and ages. All our galaxies are massive (∼0.1-1.2×1011 M⊙), with masses comparable to massive galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the oldest galaxy in our sample formed ∼1.0×1011 M⊙ of mass within the first few hundred million years of the Universe and has been quenched for more than a billion years by the time of observation at z∼3.2 (∼2 billion years after the Big Bang). Our results point to very early formation of massive galaxies requiring a high conversion rate of baryons to stars in the early Universe.

AB - Here we present a sample of 12 massive quiescent galaxy candidates at z∼3-4 observed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These galaxies were pre-selected from the Hubble Space Telescope imaging and 10 of our sources were unable to be spectroscopically confirmed by ground based spectroscopy. By combining spectroscopic data from NIRSpec with multi-wavelength imaging data from the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), we analyse their stellar populations and their formation histories. We find that all of our galaxies classify as quiescent based on the reconstruction of their star formation histories but show a variety of quenching timescales and ages. All our galaxies are massive (∼0.1-1.2×1011 M⊙), with masses comparable to massive galaxies in the local Universe. We find that the oldest galaxy in our sample formed ∼1.0×1011 M⊙ of mass within the first few hundred million years of the Universe and has been quenched for more than a billion years by the time of observation at z∼3.2 (∼2 billion years after the Big Bang). Our results point to very early formation of massive galaxies requiring a high conversion rate of baryons to stars in the early Universe.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185231509&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4

DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-52585-4

M3 - Article

C2 - 38355772

AN - SCOPUS:85185231509

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 14

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

IS - 1

M1 - 3724

ER -

A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy

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A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy

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