학술논문

A First Look at Spatially Resolved Balmer Decrements at 1.0 < z < 2.4 from JWST NIRISS Slitless Spectroscopy
Document Type
article
Source
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 949, Iss 1, p L11 (2023)
Subject
High-redshift galaxies
Galaxy evolution
Star formation
Galaxy stellar content
Astrophysics
QB460-466
Language
English
ISSN
2041-8213
2041-8205
Abstract
We present the first results on the spatial distribution of dust attenuation at 1.0 < z < 2.4 traced by the Balmer decrement, H α /H β , in emission-line galaxies using deep JWST NIRISS slitless spectroscopy from the CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS). H α and H β emission-line maps of emission-line galaxies are extracted and stacked in bins of stellar mass for two grism redshift bins, 1.0 < z _grism < 1.7 and 1.7 < z _grism < 2.4. Surface brightness profiles for the Balmer decrement are measured and radial profiles of the dust attenuation toward H α , A _H _α , are derived. In both redshift bins, the integrated Balmer decrement increases with stellar mass. Lower-mass (7.6 ≤ Log( M _* / M _⊙ ) < 10.0) galaxies have centrally concentrated, negative dust attenuation profiles whereas higher-mass galaxies (10.0 ≤ Log( M _* / M _⊙ ) < 11.1) have flat dust attenuation profiles. The total dust obscuration is mild, with on average 0.07 ± 0.07 and 0.14 ± 0.07 mag in the low- and high-redshift bins respectively. We model the typical light profiles of star-forming galaxies at these redshifts and stellar masses with GALFIT and apply both uniform and radially varying dust attenuation corrections based on our integrated Balmer decrements and radial dust attenuation profiles. If the H α star formation rates (SFRs) of these galaxies were measured after slit-loss corrections assuming uniform dust attenuation with typical JWST NIRSpec slit spectroscopy (0.″2 × 0.″5 shutters), the total SFR will be overestimated by 6% ± 21% and 26% ± 9% at 1.0 ≤ z < 1.7 and 1.7 ≤ z < 2.4 respectively.