Early Results from GLASS-JWST. VI. Extreme Rest-optical Equivalent Widths Detected in NIRISS Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • K. Boyett
  • S. Mascia
  • L. Pentericci
  • N. Leethochawalit
  • M. Trenti
  • G. Roberts-Borsani
  • T. Treu
  • M. Bradac
  • K. Glazebrook
  • A. Acebron
  • P. Bergamini
  • A. Calabro
  • M. Castellano
  • A. Fontana
  • C. Grillo
  • A. Henry
  • T. Jones
  • D. Marchesini
  • A. Mercurio
  • T. Morishita
  • T. Nanayakkara
  • P. Rosati
  • C. Scarlata
  • E. Vanzella
  • B. Vulcani
  • X. Wang
  • C. Willott

Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS) provides a powerful tool for detecting strong line emission in star-forming galaxies (SFGs) without the need for target preselection. As part of the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science (ERS) program, we leverage the near-infrared wavelength capabilities of NIRISS (1-2.2 mu m) to observe rest-optical emission lines out to z similar to 3.4, to a depth and with a spatial resolution higher than ever before (H alpha to z < 2.4; [O iii]+H beta to z < 3.4). In this Letter we constrain the rest-frame [O III]lambda 5007 equivalent width (EW) distribution for a sample of 76 1 < z < 3.4 SFGs in the A2744 Hubble Frontier Field and determine an abundance fraction of extreme emission line galaxies with EW > 750 angstrom in our sample to be 12%. We determine a strong correlation between the measured H beta and [O III]lambda 5007 EWs, supporting that the high [O III]lambda 5007 EW objects require massive stars in young stellar populations to generate the high-energy photons needed to doubly ionize oxygen. We extracted spectra for objects up to 2 mag fainter in the near-infrared than previous WFSS studies with the Hubble Space Telescope. Thus, this work clearly highlights the potential of JWST/NIRISS to provide high-quality WFSS data sets in crowded cluster environments.

Original languageEnglish
Article number52
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume940
Issue number2
Number of pages8
ISSN2041-8205
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022

    Research areas

  • O III EMITTERS, EMISSION-LINE, SURVEY DESIGN, GALAXIES, I., EVOLUTION, SAMPLE

ID: 332121434