TY - JOUR
T1 - Galaxy morphology from z ~ 6 through the lens of JWST
AU - Huertas-Company, M.
AU - Iyer, K. G.
AU - Angeloudi, E.
AU - Bagley, M. B.
AU - Finkelstein, S. L.
AU - Kartaltepe, J.
AU - McGrath, E. J.
AU - Sarmiento, R.
AU - Vega-Ferrero, J.
AU - Arrabal Haro, P.
AU - Behroozi, P.
AU - Buitrago, F.
AU - Cheng, Y.
AU - Costantin, L.
AU - Dekel, A.
AU - Dickinson, M.
AU - Elbaz, D.
AU - Grogin, N. A.
AU - Hathi, N. P.
AU - Holwerda, B. W.
AU - Koekemoer, A. M.
AU - Lucas, R. A.
AU - Papovich, C.
AU - Pérez-González, P. G.
AU - Pirzkal, N.
AU - Seillé, L. M.
AU - De La Vega, A.
AU - Wuyts, S.
AU - Yang, G.
AU - Yung, L. Y.A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 EDP Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/5/1
Y1 - 2024/5/1
N2 - Context. The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST's) unprecedented combination of sensitivity, spatial resolution, and infrared coverage has enabled a new era of galaxy morphology exploration across most of cosmic history. Aims. We analyze the near-infrared (NIR ~ 0.8 -1 μm) rest-frame morphologies of galaxies with log M∗/M⊙ > 9 in the redshift range of 0 < z < 6, compare with previous HST-based results and release the first JWST-based morphological catalog of ~20 000 galaxies in the CEERS survey. Methods. We classified the galaxies in our sample into four main broad classes: spheroid, disk+spheroid, disk, and disturbed, based on imaging with four filters: F150W, F200W, F356W, and F444W. We used convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained on HST/WFC3 labeled images and domain-adapted to JWST/NIRCam. Results. We find that ~90% and ~75% of galaxies at z < 3 have the same early and late and regular and irregular classification, respectively, in JWST and HST imaging when considering similar wavelengths. For small (large) and faint objects, JWST-based classifications tend to systematically present less bulge-dominated systems (peculiar galaxies) than HST-based ones, but the impact on the reported evolution of morphological fractions is less than ~10%. Using JWST-based morphologies at the same rest-frame wavelength ( ~0.8 -1 μm), we confirm an increase in peculiar galaxies and a decrease in bulge-dominated galaxies with redshift, as reported in previous HST-based works, suggesting that the stellar mass distribution, in addition to light distribution, is more disturbed in the early Universe. However, we find that undisturbed disk-like systems already dominate the high-mass end of the late-type galaxy population (log M∗/M⊙ > 10.5) at z ~ 5, and bulge-dominated galaxies also exist at these early epochs, confirming a rich and evolved morphological diversity of galaxies ~1 Gyr after the Big Bang. Finally, we find that the morphology-quenching relation is already in place for massive galaxies at z > 3, with massive quiescent galaxies (log M∗/M⊙ > 10.5) being predominantly bulge-dominated.
AB - Context. The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST's) unprecedented combination of sensitivity, spatial resolution, and infrared coverage has enabled a new era of galaxy morphology exploration across most of cosmic history. Aims. We analyze the near-infrared (NIR ~ 0.8 -1 μm) rest-frame morphologies of galaxies with log M∗/M⊙ > 9 in the redshift range of 0 < z < 6, compare with previous HST-based results and release the first JWST-based morphological catalog of ~20 000 galaxies in the CEERS survey. Methods. We classified the galaxies in our sample into four main broad classes: spheroid, disk+spheroid, disk, and disturbed, based on imaging with four filters: F150W, F200W, F356W, and F444W. We used convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained on HST/WFC3 labeled images and domain-adapted to JWST/NIRCam. Results. We find that ~90% and ~75% of galaxies at z < 3 have the same early and late and regular and irregular classification, respectively, in JWST and HST imaging when considering similar wavelengths. For small (large) and faint objects, JWST-based classifications tend to systematically present less bulge-dominated systems (peculiar galaxies) than HST-based ones, but the impact on the reported evolution of morphological fractions is less than ~10%. Using JWST-based morphologies at the same rest-frame wavelength ( ~0.8 -1 μm), we confirm an increase in peculiar galaxies and a decrease in bulge-dominated galaxies with redshift, as reported in previous HST-based works, suggesting that the stellar mass distribution, in addition to light distribution, is more disturbed in the early Universe. However, we find that undisturbed disk-like systems already dominate the high-mass end of the late-type galaxy population (log M∗/M⊙ > 10.5) at z ~ 5, and bulge-dominated galaxies also exist at these early epochs, confirming a rich and evolved morphological diversity of galaxies ~1 Gyr after the Big Bang. Finally, we find that the morphology-quenching relation is already in place for massive galaxies at z > 3, with massive quiescent galaxies (log M∗/M⊙ > 10.5) being predominantly bulge-dominated.
KW - Catalogs
KW - Galaxies: evolution
KW - Galaxies: high-redshift
KW - Galaxies: statistics
KW - Galaxies: structure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192679263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/202346800
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202346800
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AN - SCOPUS:85192679263
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 685
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - A48
ER -