Spectroscopic confirmation of four metal-poor galaxies at z=10.3-13.2
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Author
Curtis-Lake, Emma
Carniani, Stefano
Cameron, Alex
Charlot, Stephane
Jakobsen, Peter
Maiolino, Roberto
Bunker, Andrew
Witstok, Joris
Smit, Renske
Chevallard, Jacopo
Willott, Chris
Ferruit, Pierre
Arribas, Santiago
Bonaventura, Nina
Curti, Mirko
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Franx, Marijn
Giardino, Giovanna
Looser, Tobias J.
Lützgendorf, Nora
Maseda, Michael V.
Rawle, Tim
Rix, Hans-Walter
Pino, Bruno Rodriguez del
Übler, Hannah
Sirianni, Marko
Dressler, Alan
Egami, Eiichi
Eisenstein, Daniel J.
Endsley, Ryan
Hainline, Kevin
Hausen, Ryan
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Rieke, Marcia
Robertson, Brant
Shivaei, Irene
Stark, Daniel P.
Tacchella, Sandro
Williams, Christina C.
Willmer, Christopher N. A.
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Bowler, Rebecca
Boyett, Kristan
Chen, Zuyi
Graaff, Anna de
Helton, Jakob M.
Hviding, Raphael E.
Jones, Gareth C.
Kumari, Nimisha
Lyu, Jianwei
Nelson, Erica
Perna, Michele
Sandles, Lester
Saxena, Aayush
Suess, Katherine A.
Sun, Fengwu
Topping, Michael W.
Wallace, Imaan E. B.
Whitler, Lily
Attention
2299/26377
Abstract
Finding and characterizing the first galaxies that illuminated the early universe at cosmic dawn is pivotal to understand the physical conditions and the processes that led to the formation of the first stars. In the first few months of operations, imaging from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been used to identify tens of candidates of galaxies at redshift (z) greater than 10, less than 450 million years after the Big Bang. However, none of such candidates has yet been confirmed spectroscopically, leaving open the possibility that they are actually low-redshift interlopers. Here we present spectroscopic confirmation and analysis of four galaxies unambiguously detected at redshift 10.3 ≤ z ≤ 13.2, previously selected from JWST Near Infrared Camera imaging. The spectra reveal that these primeval galaxies are metal poor, have masses on the order of about 10 7–10 8 solar masses and young ages. The damping wings that shape the continuum close to the Lyman edge provide constraints on the neutral hydrogen fraction of the intergalactic medium from normal star-forming galaxies. These findings demonstrate the rapid emergence of the first generations of galaxies at cosmic dawn.