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arXiv · 2609.19298

MSA-3D: A Diversity of Dust Attenuation Profiles Across the Epoch of Thin Disk Emergence

Ivana Barišić·Tucker Jones·Naveen Reddy·Matthew Malkan·Ryan Sanders·Alaina Henry·Ayan Acharyya·Kevin Bundy·Juan M. Espejo Salcedo·Karl Glazebrook·Themiya Nanayakkara·Danail Obreschkow·Namrata Roy·Takafumi Tsukui·Benedetta Vulcani·Xin Wang
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Abstract

We present spatially resolved measurements of dust attenuation and star formation in 18 main-sequence star-forming galaxies at z$\sim$1 from the MSA-3D survey, obtained by mapping the Balmer emission lines at $\sim$1 kpc resolution with JWST/NIRSpec's MSA in a slit-stepping strategy. We investigate the diversity of radial attenuation profiles, and how the spatial variation affects attenuation and star formation rates (SFR) derived from single-aperture measurements. We find a notable diversity among radial attenuation profiles: some galaxies exhibit centrally peaked attenuation, but the majority exhibit flat or even positive radial profiles, with large variation at a fixed stellar mass. This diversity may reflect different evolutionary pathways shaped by various mechanisms such as disk settling, merging, and internal processes. We examine possible biases arising from single-aperture and integrated measurements and find that, while they can under- or over-estimate attenuation and SFRs for individual galaxies, the sample-averaged trends remain roughly unchanged, with the derived SFRs consistent with the star-forming main sequence, and a small scatter. From our sample, we find a median stellar-to-nebular reddening ratio f = E(B-V)$_{\rm star}$/E(B-V)$_{\rm gas}$ of 0.88 with an interquartile range of 0.51-0.96, suggesting relatively uniform dust distributions even in intermediate-mass galaxies (stellar masses $\sim 10^9$-$10^{10.5}~M_{\odot}$). Our results highlight the importance of spatially resolved attenuation measurements for accurately tracing star formation and understanding the evolving dust geometry in galaxies during a critical epoch of morphological transformation.

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Ivana Barišić, Tucker Jones, Naveen Reddy, Matthew Malkan, Ryan Sanders, Alaina Henry, Ayan Acharyya, Kevin Bundy, Juan M. Espejo Salcedo, Karl Glazebrook, Themiya Nanayakkara, Danail Obreschkow, Namrata Roy, Takafumi Tsukui, Benedetta Vulcani, Xin Wang. 2026-09-16. MSA-3D: A Diversity of Dust Attenuation Profiles Across the Epoch of Thin Disk Emergence. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.19298

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