SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions
The topology of reionization and the environments where galaxies efficiently produce ionizing photons are key open questions. For the first time, we investigate the trend between ionizing photon production efficiency, ξ _ion , and galaxy overdensity, $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ . We analyze the ionizi...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/add263 |
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| author | Yongda Zhu Stacey Alberts Jianwei Lyu Jane Morrison George H. Rieke Yang Sun Jakob M. Helton Zhiyuan Ji Rachana Bhatawdekar Nina Bonaventura Andrew J. Bunker Xiaojing Lin Marcia J. Rieke Pierluigi Rinaldi Irene Shivaei Christopher N. A. Willmer Junyu Zhang |
| author_facet | Yongda Zhu Stacey Alberts Jianwei Lyu Jane Morrison George H. Rieke Yang Sun Jakob M. Helton Zhiyuan Ji Rachana Bhatawdekar Nina Bonaventura Andrew J. Bunker Xiaojing Lin Marcia J. Rieke Pierluigi Rinaldi Irene Shivaei Christopher N. A. Willmer Junyu Zhang |
| author_sort | Yongda Zhu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The topology of reionization and the environments where galaxies efficiently produce ionizing photons are key open questions. For the first time, we investigate the trend between ionizing photon production efficiency, ξ _ion , and galaxy overdensity, $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ . We analyze the ionizing properties of 79 galaxies between 1.0 < z < 5.2 using JWST NIRSpec medium-resolution spectra from the Systematic Mid-infrared Instrument Legacy Extragalactic Survey (SMILES) program. Among these, 67 galaxies have H α coverage, spanning 1.0 < z < 3.1. The galaxy overdensity, $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ , is measured using the JADES photometric catalog, which covers the SMILES footprint. For the subset with H α coverage, we find that $\mathrm{log}{\xi }_{{\rm{ion}}}$ is positively correlated with $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ , with a slope of $0.9{4}_{-0.46}^{+0.46}$ . Additionally, the mean ξ _ion for galaxies in overdense regions ( $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )\gt 0.1$ ) is 2.43 times that of galaxies in lower density regions ( $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )\lt 0.1$ ). This strong trend is found to be independent of redshift evolution. Furthermore, our results confirm the robust correlations between ξ _ion and the rest-frame equivalent widths of the [O iii ] or H α emission lines. Our results suggest that galaxies in high-density regions are efficient producers of ionizing photons. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-af3571e433f34376977e802f672696e8 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-af3571e433f34376977e802f672696e82025-08-20T03:07:28ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-0198611810.3847/1538-4357/add263SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense RegionsYongda Zhu0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3307-7525Stacey Alberts1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8909-8782Jianwei Lyu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6221-1829Jane Morrison3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9288-9235George H. Rieke4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2303-6519Yang Sun5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6561-9443Jakob M. Helton6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4337-6211Zhiyuan Ji7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7673-2257Rachana Bhatawdekar8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0883-2226Nina Bonaventura9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8470-7094Andrew J. Bunker10https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8651-9879Xiaojing Lin11https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6052-4234Marcia J. Rieke12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7893-6170Pierluigi Rinaldi13https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5104-8245Irene Shivaei14https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4702-7561Christopher N. A. Willmer15https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9262-9997Junyu Zhang16https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1574-2045Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduEuropean Space Agency (ESA) , European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, SpainSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduDepartment of Physics, University of Oxford , Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UKSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.edu; Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduCentro de Astrobiología (CAB) , CSIC-INTA, Ctra. de Ajalvir km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, E-28850, Madrid, SpainSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; yongdaz@arizona.eduThe topology of reionization and the environments where galaxies efficiently produce ionizing photons are key open questions. For the first time, we investigate the trend between ionizing photon production efficiency, ξ _ion , and galaxy overdensity, $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ . We analyze the ionizing properties of 79 galaxies between 1.0 < z < 5.2 using JWST NIRSpec medium-resolution spectra from the Systematic Mid-infrared Instrument Legacy Extragalactic Survey (SMILES) program. Among these, 67 galaxies have H α coverage, spanning 1.0 < z < 3.1. The galaxy overdensity, $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ , is measured using the JADES photometric catalog, which covers the SMILES footprint. For the subset with H α coverage, we find that $\mathrm{log}{\xi }_{{\rm{ion}}}$ is positively correlated with $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )$ , with a slope of $0.9{4}_{-0.46}^{+0.46}$ . Additionally, the mean ξ _ion for galaxies in overdense regions ( $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )\gt 0.1$ ) is 2.43 times that of galaxies in lower density regions ( $\mathrm{log}(1+\delta )\lt 0.1$ ). This strong trend is found to be independent of redshift evolution. Furthermore, our results confirm the robust correlations between ξ _ion and the rest-frame equivalent widths of the [O iii ] or H α emission lines. Our results suggest that galaxies in high-density regions are efficient producers of ionizing photons.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/add263High-redshift galaxiesReionization |
| spellingShingle | Yongda Zhu Stacey Alberts Jianwei Lyu Jane Morrison George H. Rieke Yang Sun Jakob M. Helton Zhiyuan Ji Rachana Bhatawdekar Nina Bonaventura Andrew J. Bunker Xiaojing Lin Marcia J. Rieke Pierluigi Rinaldi Irene Shivaei Christopher N. A. Willmer Junyu Zhang SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions The Astrophysical Journal High-redshift galaxies Reionization |
| title | SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions |
| title_full | SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions |
| title_fullStr | SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions |
| title_full_unstemmed | SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions |
| title_short | SMILES: Potentially Higher Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency in Overdense Regions |
| title_sort | smiles potentially higher ionizing photon production efficiency in overdense regions |
| topic | High-redshift galaxies Reionization |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/add263 |
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