Broad Emission Lines in Optical Spectra of Hot, Dust-obscured Galaxies Can Contribute Significantly to JWST/NIRCam Photometry
Abstract
Selecting the first galaxies at z > 7 − 10 from JWST surveys is complicated by z z < 6 may mimic JWST/NIRCam photometry of z > 7–10 Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs). Dust-obscured 3 z z < 6 dusty galaxies now makes it difficult to test their expected JWST/NIRCam photometry for degenerate solutions with NIRCam dropouts. Toward this end, we quantify the contribution by strong emission lines to NIRCam photometry in a physically motivated manner by stacking 21 Keck II/NIRES spectra of hot, dust-obscured, massive (log M_*/M_⊕ ≳ 10-11) and infrared (IR) luminous galaxies at z ∼ 1–4. We derive an average spectrum and measure strong narrow (broad) [O iii]5007 and Hα features with equivalent widths of 130 ± 20 Å (150 ± 50 Å) and 220 ± 30 Å (540 ± 80 Å), respectively. These features can increase broadband NIRCam fluxes by factors of 1.2 − 1.7 (0.2–0.6 mag). Due to significant dust attenuation (A_V ∼ 6), we find Hα+[N ii] to be significantly brighter than [O iii]+Hβ and therefore find that emission-line dominated contaminants of high −z galaxy searches can only reproduce moderately blue perceived UV continua of S_λ ∝ λ_ with β > − 1.5 and z > 4. While there are some redshifts (z ∼ 3.75) where our stack is more degenerate with the photometry of z > 10 LBGs at λ_(rest) ∼ 0.3–0.8 μm , redder filter coverage beyond λ_(obs) > 3.5 μm and far-IR/submillimeter follow-up may be useful for breaking the degeneracy and making a crucial separation between two fairly unconstrained populations, dust-obscured galaxies at z ∼ 3–6 and LBGs at z > 10.
Additional Information
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. L.F. is a member of Student Researchers United (SRU-UAW). The data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. We wish to acknowledge the critical importance of the current and recent Maunakea Observatories crew, technicians, telescope operators, computer support, and office staff employees, especially during the challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their expertise, ingenuity, and dedication are indispensable to the continued successful operation of these observatories. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.Attached Files
Published - McKinney_2023_ApJL_946_L39.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 121279
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230502-710879200.5
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- Created
-
2023-05-03Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2023-05-03Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)