Hidden Giants in JWST's PEARLS: An Ultramassive z = 4.26 Submillimeter Galaxy that Is Invisible to HST

Smail, Ian; Dudzevičiūtė, Ugnė; Gurwell, Mark; Fazio, Giovanni G.; Willner, S. P.; Swinbank, A. M.; Arumugam, Vinodiran; Summers, Jake; Cohen, Seth H.; Jansen, Rolf A.; Windhorst, Rogier A.; Meena, Ashish; Zitrin, Adi; Keel, William C.; Cheng, Cheng; Coe, Dan; Conselice, Christopher J.; D’Silva, Jordan C. J.; Driver, Simon P.; Frye, Brenda; Grogin, Norman A.; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Marshall, Madeline A.; Nonino, Mario; Pirzkal, Nor; Robotham, Aaron; Rutkowski, Michael J.; Ryan Jr., Russell E.; Tompkins, Scott; Willmer, Christopher N. A.; Yan, Haojing; Broadhurst, Thomas J.; Diego, José M.; Kamieneski, Patrick; Yun, Min

Abstract

We present a multiwavelength analysis using the Submillimeter Array (SMA), James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, NOEMA, JWST, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Spitzer Space Telescope of two dusty strongly star-forming galaxies, 850.1 and 850.2, seen through the massive cluster lens A 1489. These SMA-located sources both lie at z = 4.26 and have bright dust continuum emission, but 850.2 is a UV-detected Lyman-break galaxy, while 850.1 is undetected at ≲ 2 μm, even with deep JWST/NIRCam observations. We investigate their stellar, interstellar medium, and dynamical properties, including a pixel-level spectral energy distribution analysis to derive subkiloparsec-resolution stellar-mass and A V maps. We find that 850.1 is one of the most massive and highly obscured, A V ∼ 5, galaxies known at z > 4 with M * ∼1011.8 M ⊙ (likely forming at z > 6), and 850.2 is one of the least massive and least obscured, A V ∼ 1, members of the z > 4 dusty star-forming population. The diversity of these two dust-mass-selected galaxies illustrates the incompleteness of galaxy surveys at z ≳ 3–4 based on imaging at ≲ 2 μm, the longest wavelengths feasible from HST or the ground. The resolved mass map of 850.1 shows a compact stellar-mass distribution, Remass ∼1 kpc, but its expected evolution means that it matches both the properties of massive, quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 and ultramassive early-type galaxies at z ∼ 0. We suggest that 850.1 is the central galaxy of a group in which 850.2 is a satellite that will likely merge in the near future. The stellar morphology of 850.1 shows arms and a linear bar feature that we link to the active dynamical environment it resides within.

Citation

Smail, I., Dudzevičiūtė, U., Gurwell, M., Fazio, G. G., Willner, S. P., Swinbank, A. M., …Yun, M. (2023). Hidden Giants in JWST's PEARLS: An Ultramassive z = 4.26 Submillimeter Galaxy that Is Invisible to HST. Astrophysical Journal, 958(1), 36. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acf931

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 9, 2023
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Nov 27, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 29, 2023
• Journal: The Astrophysical Journal
• Print ISSN: 0004-637X
• Publisher: American Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 958
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 36
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acf931
• Keywords: Galaxy evolution, Lyman-break galaxies, Submillimeter astronomy, High-redshift galaxies, Ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1907372