CaltechAUTHORS
Published October 20, 2022 | Version public
Journal Article Metadata-only

Early Results from GLASS-JWST. III. Galaxy Candidates at z ∼9-15*

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Rome
  • 2. ROR icon University of California, Los Angeles
  • 3. ROR icon University of Melbourne
  • 4. ROR icon Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics
  • 5. ROR icon National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand
  • 6. ROR icon Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • 7. ROR icon Trieste Astronomical Observatory
  • 8. ROR icon University of Ljubljana
  • 9. ROR icon University of California, Davis
  • 10. ROR icon Swinburne University of Technology
  • 11. ROR icon University of Milan
  • 12. ROR icon Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Milano
  • 13. ROR icon University of Copenhagen
  • 14. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte
  • 15. ROR icon Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  • 16. ROR icon University of Ferrara
  • 17. ROR icon Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
  • 18. ROR icon Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe

Abstract

We present the results of a first search for galaxy candidates at z ∼ 9–15 on deep seven-band NIRCam imaging acquired as part of the GLASS-James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Science Program on a flanking field of the Frontier Fields cluster A2744. Candidates are selected via two different renditions of the Lyman-break technique, isolating objects at z ∼ 9–11, and z ∼ 9–15, respectively, supplemented by photometric redshifts obtained with two independent codes. We find five color-selected candidates at z > 9, plus one additional candidate with photometric redshift z_(phot) ≥ 9. In particular, we identify two bright candidates at M_(UV) ≃ −21 that are unambiguously placed at z ≃ 10.6 and z ≃ 12.2, respectively. The total number of galaxies discovered at z > 9 is in line with the predictions of a nonevolving luminosity function. The two bright ones at z > 10 are unexpected given the survey volume, although cosmic variance and small number statistics limits general conclusions. This first search demonstrates the unique power of JWST to discover galaxies at the high-redshift frontier. The candidates are ideal targets for spectroscopic follow-up in Cycle-2.

Additional Information

This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/Canadian Space Agency 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 JWST-ERS-1324. The JWST data used in this paper can be found on MAST: 10.17909/fqaq-p393. We acknowledge financial support from NASA through grants JWST-ERS-1342. K.G. and T.N. acknowledge support from Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100060. C.M. acknowledges support by the VILLUM FONDEN under grant 37459. The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant DNRF140. We acknowledge support from INAF Minigrant "Reionization and fundamental cosmology with high-redshift galaxies." We thank Pascal Oesch and Rohan Naidu for the useful feedback and discussion.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
117662
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20221031-575177800.24

Related works

Describes
10.17909/fqaq-p393 (DOI)

Funding

NASA
NAS 5-03127
NASA
JWST-ERS-1324
Australian Research Council
FL180100060
Villum Foundation
37459
Danish National Research Foundation
DNRF140
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)

Dates

Created
2022-11-09
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-11-11
Created from EPrint's last_modified field