Ionized Gas Kinematics with FRESCO: An Extended, Massive, Rapidly Rotating Galaxy at z = 5.4

Abstract With the remarkable sensitivity and resolution of JWST in the infrared, measuring rest-optical kinematics of galaxies at z &gt; 5 has become possible for the first time. This study pilots a new method for measuring galaxy dynamics for highly multiplexed, unbiased samples by combining FRESCO NIRCam grism spectroscopy and JADES medium-band imaging. Here we present one of the first JWST kinematic measurements for a galaxy at z &gt; 5. We find a significant velocity gradient, which, if interpreted as rotation, yields V rot = 305 ± 70 km s −1 , and we hence refer to this galaxy as Twister-z5. With a rest-frame optical effective radius of r e = 2.25 kpc, the high rotation velocity in this galaxy is not due to a compact size, as may be expected in the early Universe, but rather to a high total mass, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>log</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mi>dyn</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:mo stretchy="true">/</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:msub> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11.2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.2</mml:mn> </mml:math> . This is a factor of roughly 10× higher than the stellar mass within r e . We also observe that the radial H α equivalent width profile and the specific star formation rate map from resolved stellar population modeling are centrally depressed by a factor of ∼1.5 from the center to r e . Combined with the morphology of the line-emitting gas in comparison to the continuum, this centrally suppressed star formation is consistent with a star-forming disk surrounding a bulge growing inside out. While large, rapidly rotating disks are common to z ∼ 2, the existence of one after only 1 Gyr of cosmic time, shown for the first time in ionized gas, adds to the growing evidence that some galaxies matured earlier than expected in the history of the Universe.

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Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Published
2024-11-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad7b17
Citations
25
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
8.29

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article

Ionized Gas Kinematics with FRESCO: An Extended, Massive, Rapidly Rotating Galaxy at z = 5.4

Abigail I. Hartley, Jasleen Matharu, Joris Witstok, Zhiyuan Ji et al.
25 citations
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
8.29
article

Ionized Gas Kinematics with FRESCO: An Extended, Massive, Rapidly Rotating Galaxy at z = 5.4

Abigail I. Hartley, Jasleen Matharu, Joris Witstok, Zhiyuan Ji, Justus Gibson, Jorryt Matthee, G. D. Illingworth, Clara Giménez-Arteaga, Alba Covelo-Paz, R. Maiolino, Benjamin D. Johnson, Rohan P. Naidu, Sandro Tacchella, Alex J. Cameron, Ivo Labbé, Gareth C. Jones, S. Charlot, Naveen A. Reddy, Christina C. Williams, Emma Giovinazzo, Stijn Wuyts, Irene Shivaei, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Hannah Übler, Pieter van Dokkum, Stacey Alberts, Katherine A. Suess, Erica J. Nelson, Pascal A. Oesch, Alice E. Shapley, William Baker, Andrew J. Bunker, Gabriel Brammer, Brant E. Robertson, Michael V. Maseda, Katherine E. Whitaker, Renske Smit, Ryan Endsley, Sedona H. Price, Mengyuan Xiao, John Chisholm, Andrea Weibel, Lester Sandles, Emily Wisnioski, Anna de Graaff, N. M. Förster Schreiber
article en
25 citations

Abstract

Abstract With the remarkable sensitivity and resolution of JWST in the infrared, measuring rest-optical kinematics of galaxies at z &gt; 5 has become possible for the first time. This study pilots a new method for measuring galaxy dynamics for highly multiplexed, unbiased samples by combining FRESCO NIRCam grism spectroscopy and JADES medium-band imaging. Here we present one of the first JWST kinematic measurements for a galaxy at z &gt; 5. We find a significant velocity gradient, which, if interpreted as rotation, yields V rot = 305 ± 70 km s −1 , and we hence refer to this galaxy as Twister-z5. With a rest-frame optical effective radius of r e = 2.25 kpc, the high rotation velocity in this galaxy is not due to a compact size, as may be expected in the early Universe, but rather to a high total mass, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>log</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mi>dyn</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:mo stretchy="true">/</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:msub> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11.2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.2</mml:mn> </mml:math> . This is a factor of roughly 10× higher than the stellar mass within r e . We also observe that the radial H α equivalent width profile and the specific star formation rate map from resolved stellar population modeling are centrally depressed by a factor of ∼1.5 from the center to r e . Combined with the morphology of the line-emitting gas in comparison to the continuum, this centrally suppressed star formation is consistent with a star-forming disk surrounding a bulge growing inside out. While large, rapidly rotating disks are common to z ∼ 2, the existence of one after only 1 Gyr of cosmic time, shown for the first time in ionized gas, adds to the growing evidence that some galaxies matured earlier than expected in the history of the Universe.

The Astrophysical Journal LettersVol. 976(2)
University of California, Riverside (US), University of Geneva (CH), Australian National University (AU), University of Copenhagen (DK), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), University of Arizona (US), Institute of Science and Technology Austria (AT), University of California, Los Angeles (US), University of Pittsburgh (US), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), University of Cambridge (GB), University of Massachusetts Amherst (US), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR), Yale University (US), ETH Zurich (CH), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Oxford (GB), ASTRO-3D (AU), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE), Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), NSF NOIRLab (US), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), University College London (GB), University of Bath (GB), Swinburne University of Technology (AU), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), The University of Texas at Austin (US), Stanford University (US)
National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Space Telescope Science Institute, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Isaac Newton Trust, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation
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