CEERS Key Paper. VIII. Emission-line Ratios from NIRSpec and NIRCam Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy at z > 2

Authors

• Bren E. Backhaus, University of Connecticut
• Jonathan R. Trump, University of Connecticut
• Nor Pirzkal, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Guillermo Barro, University of the PacificFollow
• Steven L. Finkelstein, The University of Texas at Austin
• Pablo Arrabal Haro, NOIRLab
• Raymond C. Simons, University of Connecticut
• Jessica Wessner, University of Connecticut
• Nikko J. Cleri, Texas A&M University
• Micaela B. Bagley, The University of Texas at Austin
• Michaela Hirschmann, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• David C. Nicholls, The Australian National University
• Mark Dickinson, NOIRLab
• Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Casey Papovich, Texas A&M University
• Dale D. Kocevski, Colby College
• Anton M. Koekemoer, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Laura Bisigello, Università degli Studi di Padova
• Anne E. Jaskot, Williams College
• Ray A. Lucas, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Intae Jung, Space Telescope Science Institute

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal

Department

Physics

ISSN

15384357

Volume

962

Issue

2

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ad1520

First Page

1

Last Page

16

Publication Date

2-20-2024

Abstract

We use James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy (NIRCam WFSS) and the Near-Infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec) in the Cosmic Evolution Early Release survey to measure rest-frame optical emission-line ratios of 155 galaxies at z < 2. The blind NIRCam grism observations include a sample of galaxies with bright emission lines that were not observed on the NIRSpec masks. We study the changes of the Hα, [O III]/Hβ, and [Ne III]/[O II] emission lines in terms of redshift by comparing to lower-redshift SDSS, CLEAR, and MOSDEF samples. We find a significant (>3σ) correlation between [O III]/Hβ with redshift, while [Ne III]/[O II] has a marginal (2σ) correlation with redshift. We compare [O III]/Hβ and [Ne III]/[O II] to stellar mass and Hβ SFR. We find that both emission-line ratios have a correlation with Hβ SFR and an anticorrelation with stellar mass across the redshifts 0 > z > 9. Comparison with MAPPINGS V models indicates that these trends are consistent with lower metallicity and higher ionization in low-mass and high-SFR galaxies. We additionally compare to IllustrisTNG predictions and find that they effectively describe the highest [O III]/Hβ ratios observed in our sample, without the need to invoke MAPPINGS models with significant shock ionization components.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Backhaus, Bren E.; Trump, Jonathan R.; Pirzkal, Nor; Barro, Guillermo; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Arrabal Haro, Pablo; Simons, Raymond C.; Wessner, Jessica; Cleri, Nikko J.; Bagley, Micaela B.; Hirschmann, Michaela; Nicholls, David C.; Dickinson, Mark; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.; Papovich, Casey; Kocevski, Dale D.; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Bisigello, Laura; Jaskot, Anne E.; Lucas, Ray A.; and Jung, Intae, "CEERS Key Paper. VIII. Emission-line Ratios from NIRSpec and NIRCam Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy at z > 2" (2024). Pacific Faculty Work. 93.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/all-faculty/93