JADES Imaging of GN-z11: Revealing the Morphology and Environment of a Luminous Galaxy 430 Myr After the Big Bang
Authors: Sandro Tacchella, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Kevin Hainline, Benjamin D. Johnson, William M. Baker, Jakob M. Helton, Brant Robertson, Katherine A. Suess, Zuyi Chen, Erica Nelson, Dávid Puskás, Fengwu Sun, Stacey Alberts, Eiichi Egami, Ryan Hausen, George Rieke, Marcia Rieke, Irene Shivaei, Christina C. Williams, Christopher N. A. Willmer, Andrew Bunker, Alex J. Cameron, Stefano Carniani, Stephane Charlot, Mirko Curti, Emma Curtis-Lake, Tobias J. Looser, Roberto Maiolino, Michael V. Maseda, Tim Rawle, Hans-Walter Rix, Renske Smit, Hannah Übler, Chris Willott, Joris Witstok, Stefi Baum, Rachana Bhatawdekar, Kristan Boyett, A. Lola Danhaive, Anna de Graaff, Ryan Endsley, Zhiyuan Ji, Jianwei Lyu, Lester Sandles, Aayush Saxena, Jan Scholtz, Michael W. Topping, Lily Whitler
AI-generated Key Points
- Study investigates luminous galaxy GN-z11 using near-infrared imaging from JWST JADES
- GN-z11 has redshift of 10.6, placing it at a distance of 430 million years after Big Bang
- Spectral energy distribution (SED) consistent with high-redshift galaxy
- Clear blue continuum observed from 1.5 to 4 microns, dropout in F115W
- Core of GN-z11 is extremely compact and well modeled by two-component model
- Low-surface brightness haze located northeast of GN-z11 could be extended component or foreground object
- SED analysis reveals stellar mass of approximately $10^9~M_{\odot}$, star formation rate around $20~M_{\odot}~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$, and young stellar age of about 20 million years for GN-z11
- Nine galaxies with photometric redshifts consistent with $z=10.6$ found within 5 comoving Mpc from GN-z11, along with one tentative dropout nearby
- Study provides insights into morphology and environment of GN-z11 at early cosmic history
Abstract: We present JWST NIRCam 9-band near-infrared imaging of the luminous $z=10.6$ galaxy GN-z11 from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) of the GOODS-N field. We find a spectral energy distribution (SED) entirely consistent with the expected form of a high-redshift galaxy: a clear blue continuum from 1.5 to 4 microns with a complete dropout in F115W. The core of GN-z11 is extremely compact in JWST imaging. We analyze the image with a two-component model, using a point source and a S\'{e}rsic profile that fits to a half-light radius of 200 pc and an index $n=0.9$. We find a low-surface brightness haze about $0.4''$ to the northeast of the galaxy, which is most likely a foreground object but might be a more extended component of GN-z11. At a spectroscopic redshift of 10.60 (Bunker et al. 2023), the comparison of the NIRCam F410M and F444W images spans the Balmer jump. From population synthesis modeling, here assuming no light from an active galactic nucleus, we reproduce the SED of GN-z11, finding a stellar mass of $\sim$$10^{9}~M_{\odot}$, a star-formation rate of $\sim$$20~M_{\odot}~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ and a young stellar age of $\sim$$20~\mathrm{Myr}$. As massive galaxies at high redshift are likely to be highly clustered, we search for faint neighbors of GN-z11, finding 9 galaxies out to $\sim$5 comoving Mpc transverse with photometric redshifts consistent with $z=10.6$, and a 10$^{\rm th}$ more tentative dropout only $3''$ away.
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