The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec
We present new results on the rest-frame UV luminosity function (UVLF) and stellar mass-to-light ( M / L ) ratio of bright ( M _UV ≲ −20 mag) spectroscopically confirmed galaxies at z = 7–9 derived from the BoRG-JWST survey, a unique data set of NIRSpec prism follow-up of Hubble Space Telescope (H...
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2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc67d |
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| author | Sofía Rojas-Ruiz Micaela Bagley Guido Roberts-Borsani Tommaso Treu Steven L. Finkelstein Takahiro Morishita Nicha Leethochawalit Charlotte Mason Eduardo Bañados Michele Trenti Massimo Stiavelli L. Y. Aaron Yung Pablo Arrabal Haro Rachel S. Somerville Christian Soto |
| author_facet | Sofía Rojas-Ruiz Micaela Bagley Guido Roberts-Borsani Tommaso Treu Steven L. Finkelstein Takahiro Morishita Nicha Leethochawalit Charlotte Mason Eduardo Bañados Michele Trenti Massimo Stiavelli L. Y. Aaron Yung Pablo Arrabal Haro Rachel S. Somerville Christian Soto |
| author_sort | Sofía Rojas-Ruiz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We present new results on the rest-frame UV luminosity function (UVLF) and stellar mass-to-light ( M / L ) ratio of bright ( M _UV ≲ −20 mag) spectroscopically confirmed galaxies at z = 7–9 derived from the BoRG-JWST survey, a unique data set of NIRSpec prism follow-up of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)–selected sources from random-pointing imaging. By selecting galaxies from over 300 independent sight lines, the survey minimizes cosmic variance, ensuring a statistically robust sample of the bright-galaxy population during the epoch of reionization. The data are used to constrain, for the first time, the bright end of the UVLF at z = 7–9 from spectroscopically confirmed galaxies over eight independent fields. We find that the bright end of the UVLF is higher than found using imaging over JWST legacy fields, suggesting that the latter may be significantly affected by cosmic variance, and thus reducing the tension with recent findings from JWST at z > 10 and comparable to models invoking little dust attenuation and bursty star formation. Additionally, we use the galaxies’ JWST spectra to infer their stellar masses and M / L ratios relative to other HST and JWST studies. We show that the stellar mass scales almost linearly with UV luminosity ( M ${}_{* }\propto {L}_{{\rm{UV}}}^{0.85\pm 0.12}$ ), albeit with large (∼0.5 dex) intrinsic scatter, consistent with stochastic bursts of star formation in early galaxy formation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9a4741c745114b82bd45ca1937dddc56 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-9a4741c745114b82bd45ca1937dddc562025-08-20T02:31:37ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-0198518010.3847/1538-4357/adc67dThe BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpecSofía Rojas-Ruiz0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2349-9310Micaela Bagley1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9921-9218Guido Roberts-Borsani2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4140-1367Tommaso Treu3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8460-0390Steven L. Finkelstein4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8519-1130Takahiro Morishita5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8512-1404Nicha Leethochawalit6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4570-3159Charlotte Mason7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3407-1785Eduardo Bañados8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2931-7824Michele Trenti9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9391-305XMassimo Stiavelli10https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9935-6047L. Y. Aaron Yung11https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3466-035XPablo Arrabal Haro12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7959-8783Rachel S. Somerville13https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6748-6821Christian Soto14https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7840-2972Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA ; rojas@astro.ucla.eduDepartment of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd., Greenbelt, MD 20771, USADepartment of Astronomy, University of Geneva , Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, SwitzerlandDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA ; rojas@astro.ucla.eduDepartment of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway, Austin, TX 78712, USAIPAC, California Institute of Technology , MC 314-6, 1200 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USANational Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) , Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, 50180, ThailandCosmic Dawn Center (DAWN); Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen , Jagtvej 128, DK-2200, Copenhagen N, DenmarkMax Planck Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, GermanySchool of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville 3010, VIC, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , AustraliaSpace Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USASpace Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21218, USANSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, USACenter for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USASpace Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USAWe present new results on the rest-frame UV luminosity function (UVLF) and stellar mass-to-light ( M / L ) ratio of bright ( M _UV ≲ −20 mag) spectroscopically confirmed galaxies at z = 7–9 derived from the BoRG-JWST survey, a unique data set of NIRSpec prism follow-up of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)–selected sources from random-pointing imaging. By selecting galaxies from over 300 independent sight lines, the survey minimizes cosmic variance, ensuring a statistically robust sample of the bright-galaxy population during the epoch of reionization. The data are used to constrain, for the first time, the bright end of the UVLF at z = 7–9 from spectroscopically confirmed galaxies over eight independent fields. We find that the bright end of the UVLF is higher than found using imaging over JWST legacy fields, suggesting that the latter may be significantly affected by cosmic variance, and thus reducing the tension with recent findings from JWST at z > 10 and comparable to models invoking little dust attenuation and bursty star formation. Additionally, we use the galaxies’ JWST spectra to infer their stellar masses and M / L ratios relative to other HST and JWST studies. We show that the stellar mass scales almost linearly with UV luminosity ( M ${}_{* }\propto {L}_{{\rm{UV}}}^{0.85\pm 0.12}$ ), albeit with large (∼0.5 dex) intrinsic scatter, consistent with stochastic bursts of star formation in early galaxy formation.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc67dHigh-redshift galaxiesStar formationReionizationCosmologyObservational astronomy |
| spellingShingle | Sofía Rojas-Ruiz Micaela Bagley Guido Roberts-Borsani Tommaso Treu Steven L. Finkelstein Takahiro Morishita Nicha Leethochawalit Charlotte Mason Eduardo Bañados Michele Trenti Massimo Stiavelli L. Y. Aaron Yung Pablo Arrabal Haro Rachel S. Somerville Christian Soto The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec The Astrophysical Journal High-redshift galaxies Star formation Reionization Cosmology Observational astronomy |
| title | The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec |
| title_full | The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec |
| title_fullStr | The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec |
| title_full_unstemmed | The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec |
| title_short | The BoRG-JWST Survey: Abundance and Mass-to-light Ratio of Luminous z = 7–9 Galaxies from Independent Sight Lines with NIRSpec |
| title_sort | borg jwst survey abundance and mass to light ratio of luminous z 7 9 galaxies from independent sight lines with nirspec |
| topic | High-redshift galaxies Star formation Reionization Cosmology Observational astronomy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc67d |
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