REBELS-IFU: dust attenuation curves of 12 massive galaxies at <i>z</i> ≃ 7

ABSTRACT We present measurements of the dust attenuation curves of 12 massive ($9~&amp;lt;~\log$($M_{\star }$/${\rm M}_{\odot }$) $&amp;lt;~10$) Lyman-break galaxies at $z=6.5 \!\!-\!\! 7.7$ derived from JWST NIRSpec integral field unit spectroscopy. The galaxies are drawn from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) large program. The dust attenuation curves were obtained by fitting spectral energy distribution (SED) models with a flexible dust attenuation curve to the full galaxy spectra over observed wavelengths $0.6 \!\!-\!\! 5.3\ \mu$m. These attenuation curves show a range of recovered slopes ($-0.41\le \delta \le 0.09$) that are on average slightly flatter than seen in local sources of the same stellar masses, with none exhibiting very steep slopes. Three galaxies exhibit evidence for a 2175 Å dust bump ($&amp;gt; \!\! 4\sigma$) and we find that SED fitting excluding the bump can overestimate derived stellar masses by up to 0.4 dex. Correcting for the dust attenuation with our best-fitting attenuation curves, we recover a range of intrinsic ultraviolet slopes ($-2.4&amp;lt;\beta _0{&amp;lt;}-2.0$). The galaxies show moderate reddening ($A_{V,\text{ stellar}}~=~0.1 \!\!-\!\! 0.6$ mag) and the $A_{V,\text{ stellar}}$ to stellar mass relation is consistent with local sources. The attenuation curve slope is found to correlate with $A_{V,\text{ stellar}}$, while we see no strong correlation with stellar mass, ${M_{\rm UV}}$, or gas-phase metallicity. Overall, our results show little evolution in dust properties in the REBELS sources compared to the local Universe. Comparing our recovered trends to empirical models suggests that the most important factor driving the variation in the attenuation curves in our sample is the dust-star geometry, not the properties of the dust grains themselves.

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Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-03-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf485
Citations
20
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
23.10

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article

REBELS-IFU: dust attenuation curves of 12 massive galaxies at z ≃ 7

Pratika Dayal, A. Pallottini, Jacqueline Hodge, Sander Schouws et al.
20 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
23.10
article

REBELS-IFU: dust attenuation curves of 12 massive galaxies at z ≃ 7

Pratika Dayal, A. Pallottini, Jacqueline Hodge, Sander Schouws, Nina S. Sartorio, R. J. Bouwens, Mauro Stefanon, Hanae Inami, Andrea Ferrara, Lucie E. Rowland, Hiddo Algera, Katherine Ormerod, Siân Phillips, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, P. van der Werf, R. A. A. Bowler, Manuel Aravena, Renske Smit, Laura Sommovigo, R. P. Fisher, Daniel P. Stark, Cindy Gulis
article en
20 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present measurements of the dust attenuation curves of 12 massive ($9~&amp;lt;~\log$($M_{\star }$/${\rm M}_{\odot }$) $&amp;lt;~10$) Lyman-break galaxies at $z=6.5 \!\!-\!\! 7.7$ derived from JWST NIRSpec integral field unit spectroscopy. The galaxies are drawn from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) large program. The dust attenuation curves were obtained by fitting spectral energy distribution (SED) models with a flexible dust attenuation curve to the full galaxy spectra over observed wavelengths $0.6 \!\!-\!\! 5.3\ \mu$m. These attenuation curves show a range of recovered slopes ($-0.41\le \delta \le 0.09$) that are on average slightly flatter than seen in local sources of the same stellar masses, with none exhibiting very steep slopes. Three galaxies exhibit evidence for a 2175 Å dust bump ($&amp;gt; \!\! 4\sigma$) and we find that SED fitting excluding the bump can overestimate derived stellar masses by up to 0.4 dex. Correcting for the dust attenuation with our best-fitting attenuation curves, we recover a range of intrinsic ultraviolet slopes ($-2.4&amp;lt;\beta _0{&amp;lt;}-2.0$). The galaxies show moderate reddening ($A_{V,\text{ stellar}}~=~0.1 \!\!-\!\! 0.6$ mag) and the $A_{V,\text{ stellar}}$ to stellar mass relation is consistent with local sources. The attenuation curve slope is found to correlate with $A_{V,\text{ stellar}}$, while we see no strong correlation with stellar mass, ${M_{\rm UV}}$, or gas-phase metallicity. Overall, our results show little evolution in dust properties in the REBELS sources compared to the local Universe. Comparing our recovered trends to empirical models suggests that the most important factor driving the variation in the attenuation curves in our sample is the dust-star geometry, not the properties of the dust grains themselves.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 539(1)
Hiroshima University (JP), Leiden University (NL), Pennsylvania State University (US), Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (TW), Federal Foreign Office (DE), University of Arizona (US), Scuola Normale Superiore (IT), Chiba University (JP), Universitat de València (ES), University of Groningen (NL), University of Manchester (GB), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Instituto de Física de Cantabria (ES), Flatiron Health (United States) (US), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP), Flatiron Institute (US), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), Universidad Diego Portales (CL)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Space Telescope Science Institute, European Commission, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Generalitat Valenciana, Vlaamse regering, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Science and Technology Facilities Council, European Regional Development Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
23.10
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