EPOCHS. I. The Discovery and Star-forming Properties of Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization at 6.5 &lt; <i>z</i> &lt; 18 with PEARLS and Public JWST Data

Abstract We present in this paper the discovery, properties, and a catalog of 1165 high-redshift 6.5 &lt; z &lt; 18 galaxies found in deep JWST NIRCam imaging from the GTO PEARLS survey combined with data from JWST public fields. We describe our bespoke homogeneous reduction process and our analysis of these areas including the NEP, CEERS, GLASS, NGDEEP, JADES, and ERO SMACS-0723 fields with over 214 arcmin 2 imaged to depths of ∼30 mag. We describe our rigorous methods for identifying these galaxies, involving the use of Lyman-break strength, detection significance criteria, visual inspection, and integrated photometric redshift probability distributions predominately at high redshift. Our sample is a robust and highly pure collection of distant galaxies from which we also remove brown dwarf stars, and calculate completeness and contamination from simulations. We include a summary of the basic properties of these z &gt; 6.5 galaxies, including their redshift distributions, UV absolute magnitudes, and star formation rates. Our study of these young galaxies reveals a wide range of stellar population properties as seen in their colors and SED fits, which we compare to stellar population models, indicating a range of star formation histories (SFHs), dust, active galactic nuceli, and/or nebular emission. We find that a strong trend exists between stellar mass and ( U − V ) color, as well as the existence of the “main-sequence” of star formation for galaxies as early as z ∼ 12. This indicates that stellar mass, or an underlying variable correlating with stellar mass, is driving galaxy formation, in agreement with simulation predictions. We also discover ultra-high-redshift candidates at z &gt; 12 in our sample and describe their properties. Finally, we note a significant observed excess of galaxies compared to models at z &gt; 12, revealing a tension between predictions and our observations.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2025-04-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada608
Citations
14
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.17
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article

EPOCHS. I. The Discovery and Star-forming Properties of Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization at 6.5 < z < 18 with PEARLS and Public JWST Data

Jake Summers, Stephen M. Wilkins, Lukas J. Furtak, Rogier A. Windhorst et al.
14 citations
The Astrophysical Journal
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
16.17
article

EPOCHS. I. The Discovery and Star-forming Properties of Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization at 6.5 < z < 18 with PEARLS and Public JWST Data

Jake Summers, Stephen M. Wilkins, Lukas J. Furtak, Rogier A. Windhorst, Rolf A. Jansen, Norman A. Grogin, Asa F. L. Bluck, Nimish P. Hathi, Nathan Adams, Ignas Juodžbalis, Madeline A. Marshall, Thomas Harvey, Christopher J. Conselice, Seth H. Cohen, Anton M. Koekemoer, Rachana Bhatawdekar, Dan Coe, Simon P. Driver, Louise T. C. Seeyave, Benne W. Holwerda, Haojing Yan, Katherine Ormerod, Brenda Frye, Cheng Cheng, James Trussler, Duncan Austin, Christopher N. A. Willmer, Adi Zitrin, M. Nonino, A. S. G. Robotham, Lewi Westcott, Qiong Li, Leonardo Ferreira, Qiao Duan, Honor Harris
article en
14 citations

Abstract

Abstract We present in this paper the discovery, properties, and a catalog of 1165 high-redshift 6.5 &lt; z &lt; 18 galaxies found in deep JWST NIRCam imaging from the GTO PEARLS survey combined with data from JWST public fields. We describe our bespoke homogeneous reduction process and our analysis of these areas including the NEP, CEERS, GLASS, NGDEEP, JADES, and ERO SMACS-0723 fields with over 214 arcmin 2 imaged to depths of ∼30 mag. We describe our rigorous methods for identifying these galaxies, involving the use of Lyman-break strength, detection significance criteria, visual inspection, and integrated photometric redshift probability distributions predominately at high redshift. Our sample is a robust and highly pure collection of distant galaxies from which we also remove brown dwarf stars, and calculate completeness and contamination from simulations. We include a summary of the basic properties of these z &gt; 6.5 galaxies, including their redshift distributions, UV absolute magnitudes, and star formation rates. Our study of these young galaxies reveals a wide range of stellar population properties as seen in their colors and SED fits, which we compare to stellar population models, indicating a range of star formation histories (SFHs), dust, active galactic nuceli, and/or nebular emission. We find that a strong trend exists between stellar mass and ( U − V ) color, as well as the existence of the “main-sequence” of star formation for galaxies as early as z ∼ 12. This indicates that stellar mass, or an underlying variable correlating with stellar mass, is driving galaxy formation, in agreement with simulation predictions. We also discover ultra-high-redshift candidates at z &gt; 12 in our sample and describe their properties. Finally, we note a significant observed excess of galaxies compared to models at z &gt; 12, revealing a tension between predictions and our observations.

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 983(1)
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (IL), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of Arizona (US), University of Louisville (US), University of Sussex (GB), The University of Western Australia (AU), Florida International University (US), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), University of Victoria (CA), University of Cambridge (GB), Trieste Astronomical Observatory (IT), Kitt Peak National Observatory (US), University of Manchester (GB), European Space Astronomy Centre (ES), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), Arizona State University (US), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), University of Missouri (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
16.17
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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