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arXiv · 2207.13860

Early results from GLASS-JWST XVI: Discovering a bluer z~4-7 Universe through UV slopes

Themiya Nanayakkara·Karl Glazebrook·Colin Jacobs·Andrea Bonchi·Marco Castellano·Adriano Fontana·Charlotte Mason·Emiliano Merlin·Takahiro Morishita·Diego Paris·Michele Trenti·Tommaso Treu·Antonello Calabro·Kristan Boyett·Marusa Bradac·Nicha Leethochawalit·Danilo Marchesini·Paola Santini·Victoria Strait·Eros Vanzella·Benedetta Vulcani·Xin Wang·Lilian Yang
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Abstract

We use the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science NIRCam parallel observations to provide a first view of the UV continuum properties of NIRCam/F444W selected galaxies at 4 99% of the galaxies are blue star-forming galaxies with very low levels of dust (Avbeta~0.01+/-0.33). We find no statistically significant correlation for UV slope with redshift or UV magnitude. However, we find that in general galaxies at higher redshifts and fainter UV magnitudes have steeper UV slopes. We find a statistically significant correlation for UV slope with stellar mass, with galaxies with higher stellar mass showing shallower UV slopes. Individual fits to some of our galaxies reach the bluest UV slopes of beta~-3.1 allowed by stellar population models used in this analysis. Therefore, it is likely that stellar population models with higher amount of Lyman continuum leakage, AGN effects, and/or Population III contributions are required to accurately reproduce the rest-UV and optical properties of some of our bluest galaxies. This dust-free early view confirms that our current cosmological understanding of gradual mass + dust buildup of galaxies with cosmic time is largely accurate to describe the ~0.7-1.5 Gyr age window of the Universe. The abundance of a large population of UV faint dust-poor systems may point to a dominance of low-mass galaxies at z>6 playing a vital role in cosmic reionization.

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Themiya Nanayakkara, Karl Glazebrook, Colin Jacobs, Andrea Bonchi, Marco Castellano, Adriano Fontana, Charlotte Mason, Emiliano Merlin, Takahiro Morishita, Diego Paris, Michele Trenti, Tommaso Treu, Antonello Calabro, Kristan Boyett, Marusa Bradac, Nicha Leethochawalit, Danilo Marchesini, Paola Santini, Victoria Strait, Eros Vanzella, Benedetta Vulcani, Xin Wang, Lilian Yang. 2023-03-14. Early results from GLASS-JWST XVI: Discovering a bluer z~4-7 Universe through UV slopes. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213%2Facbfb9

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