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We present a measurement of the low-mass quiescent size-mass relation at Cosmic Noon (1

Over the past year, JWST has uncovered galaxies at record-breaking distances up to $z \sim 13$. The JWST UNCOVER (ultra-deep NIRSpec and NIRcam observations before the epoch of reionization) program has obtained ultra-deep multiwavelength NIRCam imaging of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744 over $\sim 45$ arcmin$^{2}$ down to $\sim 29.5$ AB mag. Here, we present a robust ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function derived through lensing clusters at $99$ in recent JWST studies. In particular, a double power-law (DPL) describes better the bright-end of the luminosity function compared to the classical Schechter form. The number density of these bright galaxies is 10-100 times larger than theoretical predictions and previous findings based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. Additionally, we measure a star formation rate density of $\rho_{\rm SFR} = 10^{-2.64}$ M$_{\odot}$~yr$^{-1}$~Mpc$^{-3}$ at these redshifts, which is 4 to 10 times higher than galaxy formation models that assume a constant star formation efficiency. Future wide-area surveys and accurate modeling of lensing-assisted observations will reliably constrain both the bright and the dim end of the UV luminosity function at $z>9$, which will provide key benchmarks for galaxy formation models., Comment: Published in MNRAS

The co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) underpins our understanding of galaxy evolution, but different methods to measure SMBH masses have only infrequently been cross-checked. We attempt to identify targets to cross-check two of the most accurate methods, megamaser and cold molecular gas dynamics. Three promising galaxies are selected from all those with existing megamaser SMBH mass measurements. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) 12CO(2-1) and 230-GHz continuum observations with angular resolutions of about 0.5". Every galaxy has an extended rotating molecular gas disc and 230-GHz continuum source(s), but all also have irregularities and/or non-axisymmetric features: NGC1194 is highly inclined and has disturbed and lopsided central 12CO(2-1) emission; NGC3393 has a nuclear disc with fairly regular but patchy 12CO(2-1) emission with little gas near the kinematic major axis, faint emission in the very centre and two brighter structures reminiscent of a nuclear ring and/or spiral; NGC5765B has a strong bar and very bright 12CO(2-1) emission concentrated along two bisymmetric offset dust lanes and two bisymmetric nuclear spiral arms. 12CO(2-1) and 12CO(3-2) observations with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope are compared with the ALMA observations. Because of the disturbed gas kinematics and the impractically long integration times required for higher angular resolution observations, none of the three galaxies is suitable for a future SMBH mass measurement. Nonetheless, increasing the number of molecular gas observations of megamaser galaxies is valuable, and the ubiquitous disturbances suggest a link between large-scale gas properties and the existence of megamasers., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, accepted by MNRAS

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) light curves observed with different wavebands show that the variability in longer wavelength bands lags the variability in shorter wavelength bands. Measuring these lags, or reverberation mapping, is used to measure the radial temperature profile and extent of AGN disks, typically with a reprocessing model that assumes X-rays are the main driver of the variability in other wavelength bands. To demonstrate how this reprocessing works with realistic accretion disk structures, we use 3D local shearing box multi-frequency radiation magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to model the UV-emitting region of an AGN disk, which is unstable to the magnetorotational instability (MRI) and convection. At the same time, we inject hard X-rays ($>1$~keV) into the simulation box to study the effects of X-ray irradiation on the local properties of the turbulence and the resulting variability of the emitted UV light curve. We find that disk turbulence is sufficient to drive intrinsic variability in emitted UV light curves and that a damped random walk (DRW) model is a good fit to this UV light curve for timescales $>5$~days. Meanwhile, the injected X-rays have almost no impact on the power spectrum of the emitted UV light curve. In addition, the injected X-ray and emitted UV light curves are only correlated if there is X-ray variability on timescales $>1$~day, in which case we find a correlation coefficient $r=0.52$. These results suggest that hard X-rays with scattering dominated opacity are likely not the main driver of the reverberation signals., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJL

It is exceedingly rare to find quiescent low-mass galaxies in the field. UGC5205 is an example of such a quenched field dwarf ($M_\star\sim3\times10^8M_\odot$). Despite a wealth of cold gas ($M_{\rm HI}\sim 3.5 \times 10^8 M_\odot$) and GALEX emission that indicates significant star formation in the past few hundred Myr, there is no detection of H$\alpha$ emission -- star formation in the last $\sim 10$ Myr -- across the face of the galaxy. Meanwhile, the near equal-mass companion of UGC5205, PGC027864, is starbursting ($\rm EW_{\rm H\alpha}>1000$ Angstrom). In this work, we present new Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) 21 cm line observations of UGC5205 that demonstrate that the lack of star formation is caused by an absence of HI in the main body of the galaxy. The HI of UGC5205 is highly disturbed; the bulk of the HI resides in several kpc-long tails, while the HI of PGC027864 is dominated by ordered rotation. We model the stellar populations of UGC5205 to show that, as indicated by the UV-H$\alpha$ emission, the galaxy underwent a coordinated quenching event $\sim\!100-300$ Myr ago. The asymmetry of outcomes for UGC5205 and PGC027864 demonstrate that major mergers can both quench and trigger star formation in dwarfs. However, because the gas remains bound to the system, we suggest that such mergers only temporarily quench star formation. We estimate a total quenched time of $\sim 560$ Myr for UGC5205, consistent with established upper limits on the quenched fraction of a few percent for dwarfs in the field., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. Accepted to ApJ

The era of the James Webb Space Telescope ushers stellar population models into uncharted territories, particularly at the high-redshift frontier. In a companion paper, we apply the \texttt{Prospector} Bayesian framework to jointly infer galaxy redshifts and stellar population properties from broad-band photometry as part of the UNCOVER survey. Here we present a comprehensive error budget in spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling. Using a sample selected to have photometric redshifts higher than 9, we quantify the systematic shifts stemming from various model choices in inferred stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), and age. These choices encompass different timescales for changes in the star formation history (SFH), non-universal stellar initial mass functions (IMF), and the inclusion of variable nebular abundances, gas density and ionizing photon budget. We find that the IMF exerts the strongest influence on the inferred properties: the systematic uncertainties can be as much as 1 dex, 2--5 times larger than the formal reported uncertainties in mass and SFR; and importantly, exceed the scatter seen when using different SED fitting codes. Although the assumptions on the lower end of the IMF induce degeneracy, our findings suggest that a common practice in the literature of assessing uncertainties in SED-fitting processes by comparing multiple codes is substantively underestimating the true systematic uncertainty. Highly stochastic SFHs change the inferred SFH by much larger than the formal uncertainties, and introduce $\sim 0.8$ dex systematics in SFR averaged over short time scale and $\sim 0.3$ dex systematics in average age. Finally, employing a flexible nebular emission model causes $\sim 0.2$ dex systematic increase in mass and SFR, comparable to the formal uncertainty. This paper constitutes an initial step toward a complete uncertainty estimate in SED modeling., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 22 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

With the wavelength coverage, sensitivity, and high spatial resolution of JWST, it is now possible to peer through the dust attenuation to probe the rest-frame near infrared (NIR) and stellar structures of extremely dusty galaxies at cosmic noon (z~1-3). In this paper we leverage the combined ALMA and JWST/HST coverage in Abell 2744 to study the multiwavelength (0.5-4.4um) structures of 11 sub-millimeter (sub-mm) detected galaxies at z~0.9-3.5 that are fainter than bright "classical" sub-mm galaxies (SMGs). While these objects reveal a diversity of structures and sizes, all exhibit decreasing sizes and increasing central concentration towards longer wavelengths. The smaller sizes of these objects at long wavelengths indicate that their stellar mass profiles are more compact than their optical light profiles, likely due to centrally-concentrated dust obscuration. Further, we find that galaxies with higher central concentration values tend to have more extreme size ratios (comparing the rest-frame NIR to rest-frame optical); this suggests that the galaxies with the most compact light distributions also have the most concentrated dust distributions. We also find the galaxies with the most extreme size ratios do not have elevated 1.2mm flux densities compared to the rest of our sample: we argue this means compact dust geometry, rather than e.g. high total dust quantity, drives the most extreme observed rest-frame NIR-to-optical size ratios. Upcoming higher resolution 1.2mm ALMA imaging will facilitate joint spatially-resolved analysis and will directly test the dust distributions within this representative sub-mm population., Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 13 pages, 6 figures

The recent UNCOVER survey with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) exploits the nearby cluster Abell 2744 to create the deepest view of our universe to date by leveraging strong gravitational lensing. In this work, we perform photometric fitting of more than 50,000 robustly detected sources out to $z \sim 15$. We show the redshift evolution of stellar ages, star formation rates, and rest-frame colors across the full range of $0.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 15$. The galaxy properties are inferred using the Prospector Bayesian inference framework using informative Prospector-$\beta$ priors on masses and star formation histories to produce joint redshift and stellar population posteriors, and additionally lensing magnification is performed on-the-fly to ensure consistency with the scale-dependent priors. We show that this approach produces excellent photometric redshifts with $\sigma_{\rm NMAD} \sim 0.03$, of a similar quality to the established photometric redshift code EAzY. In line with the open-source scientific objective of the Treasury survey, we publicly release the stellar population catalog with this paper, derived from the photometric catalog adapting aperture sizes based on source profiles. This release includes posterior moments, maximum-likelihood spectra, star-formation histories, and full posterior distributions, offering a rich data set to explore the processes governing galaxy formation and evolution over a parameter space now accessible by JWST., Comment: Corrected typos: Eq.1 should've been (1-kappa)^2, and the lens maps are normalized to D_ds/D_s=1. These errors were only in the writing; no data products or results were affected. The SPS catalogs are accessible via the UNCOVER survey webpage: https://jwst-uncover.github.io/DR2.html#SPSCatalogs, with a copy deposited to Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8401181

We study the morphologies and structures of 57 dwarf galaxies that are representative of the general population of dwarf galaxies, and compare their demographics to a sample of dwarf galaxies hosting optically-selected AGNs. The two samples span the same galaxy stellar mass ($10^9 \lesssim M_\star/M_\odot \lesssim 10^{9.5}$) and color range, and the observations are well-matched in physical resolution. The fractions of irregular galaxies (14\%) and early-types/ellipticals ($\sim 18\%$) are nearly identical among the two samples. However, among galaxies with disks (the majority of each sample), the AGN hosts almost always have a detectable (pseudo)bulge, while a large fraction of the non-AGN hosts are pure disk galaxies with no detectable (pseudo)bulge. Central point sources of light consistent with nuclear star clusters are detected in many of the non-AGN hosts. In contrast, central point sources detected in the AGN hosts are on average more than two orders of magnitude more luminous, suggesting the point sources in these objects are dominated by AGN light. The preference for (pseudo)bulges in dwarf AGN hosts may inform searches for massive black holes in dwarf galaxies and attempts to constrain the black hole occupation fraction, which in turn has implications for our understanding of black hole seeding mechanisms., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in he Astrophysical Journal

We present the survey design and initial results of the ALMA Cycle 9 program of DUALZ, which aims to establish a joint ALMA and JWST public legacy field targeting the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744. DUALZ features a contiguous $4'\times6'$ ALMA 30-GHz-wide mosaic in Band 6, covering areas of $\mu>2$ down to a sensitivity of $\sigma=32.7~\mu$Jy. Through a blind search, we identified 69 dust continuum sources at S/N $\gtrsim5.0$ with median redshift and intrinsic 1.2-mm flux of $z=2.30$ and $S_{\rm 1.2mm}^{\rm int}=0.24$~mJy. Of these, 27 have been spectroscopically confirmed, leveraged by the latest NIRSpec observations, while photometric redshift estimates are constrained by the comprehensive HST, NIRCam, and ALMA data for the remaining sources. With priors, we further identify a [CII]158 $\mu$m line emitter at $z=6.3254\pm0.0004$, confirmed by the latest NIRSpec spectroscopy. The NIRCam counterparts of the 1.2-mm continuum exhibit undisturbed morphologies, denoted either by disk or spheroid, implying the triggers for the faint mm emission are less catastrophic than mergers. We have identified 8 HST-dark galaxies (F150W$>$27mag, F150W$-$F444W$>$2.3) and 2 JWST-dark (F444W$>$30mag) galaxy candidates among the ALMA continuum sources. The former includes face-on disk galaxies, hinting that substantial dust obscuration does not always result from inclination. We also detect a marginal dust emission from an X-ray-detected galaxy at $z_{\rm spec}=10.07$, suggesting an active co-evolution of the central black hole and its host. We assess the infrared luminosity function up to $z\sim10$ and find it consistent with predictions from galaxy formation models. To foster diverse scientific outcomes from the community, we publicly release reduced ALMA mosaic maps, cubes, and the source catalog., Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, and 5 tables. Submitted to ApJS. The ALMA products are fully available from here: https://jwst-uncover.github.io/DR2.html#DUALZ

JWST is revealing a new population of dust-reddened broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) at redshifts $z\gtrsim5$. Here we present deep NIRSpec/Prism spectroscopy from the Cycle 1 Treasury program UNCOVER of 15 AGN candidates selected to be compact, with red continua in the rest-frame optical but with blue slopes in the UV. From NIRCam photometry alone, they could have been dominated by dusty star formation or AGN. Here we show that the majority of the compact red sources in UNCOVER are dust-reddened AGN: $60\%$ show definitive evidence for broad-line H$\alpha$ with FWHM$\, >2000$ km/s, for $20\%$ current data are inconclusive, and $20\%$ are brown dwarf stars. We propose an updated photometric criterion to select red $z>5$ AGN that excludes brown dwarfs and is expected to yield $>80\%$ AGN. Remarkably, among all $z_{\rm phot}>5$ galaxies with F277W$-$F444W$>1$ in UNCOVER at least $33\%$ are AGN regardless of compactness, climbing to at least $80\%$ AGN for sources with F277W$-$F444W$>1.6$. The confirmed AGN have black hole masses of $10^7-10^9$ M$_{\odot}$. While their UV-luminosities ($-16>M_{\rm UV}>-20$ AB mag) are low compared to UV-selected AGN at these epochs, consistent with percent-level scattered AGN light or low levels of unobscured star formation, the inferred bolometric luminosities are typical of $10^7-10^9$ M$_{\odot}$ black holes radiating at $\sim 10-40\%$ of Eddington. The number densities are surprisingly high at $\sim10^{-5}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ mag$^{-1}$, 100 times more common than the faintest UV-selected quasars, while accounting for $\sim1\%$ of the UV-selected galaxies. While their UV-faintness suggest they may not contribute strongly to reionization, their ubiquity poses challenges to models of black hole growth., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to ApJ

This paper reports the first measurement of the relationship between turbulent velocity and cloud size in the diffuse circumgalactic medium (CGM) in typical galaxy halos at redshift z~0.4-1. Through spectrally-resolved absorption profiles of a suite of ionic transitions paired with careful ionization analyses of individual components, cool clumps of size as small as l_cl~1 pc and density lower than nH = 0.001 cm^-3 are identified in galaxy halos. In addition, comparing the line widths between different elements for kinematically matched components provides robust empirical constraints on the thermal temperature T and the non-thermal motions bNT, independent of the ionization models. On average, bNT is found to increase with l_cl following bNT \propto l_cl^0.3 over three decades in spatial scale from l_cl~1 pc to l_cl~1 kpc. Attributing the observed bNT to turbulent motions internal to the clumps, the best-fit bNT-l_cl relation shows that the turbulence is consistent with Kolmogorov at <1 kpc with a roughly constant energy transfer rate per unit mass of epsilon~0.003 cm^2 s^-3 and a dissipation time scale of <~ 100 Myr. No significant difference is found between massive quiescent and star-forming halos in the sample on scales less than 1 kpc. While the inferred epsilon is comparable to what is found in CIV absorbers at high redshift, it is considerably smaller than observed in star-forming gas or in extended line-emitting nebulae around distant quasars. A brief discussion of possible sources to drive the observed turbulence in the cool CGM is presented., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 10 pages, 4 figures

At fixed galaxy stellar mass, there is a clear observational connection between structural asymmetry and offset from the star forming main sequence, $\Delta$SFMS. Herein, we use the TNG50 simulation to investigate the relative roles of major mergers (stellar mass ratios $\mu\geq0.25$), minor ($0.1 \leq \mu < 0.25$), and mini mergers ($0.01 \leq \mu < 0.1$) in driving this connection amongst star forming galaxies (SFGs). We use dust radiative transfer post-processing with SKIRT to make a large, public collection of synthetic Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) images of simulated TNG galaxies over $0.1\leq z \leq 0.7$ with $\log M_{\star} / \mathrm{M}_{\odot}\geq9$ ($\sim750$k images). Using their instantaneous SFRs, known merger histories/forecasts, and HSC-SSP asymmetries, we show (1) that TNG50 SFGs qualitatively reproduce the observed trend between $\Delta$SFMS and asymmetry and (2) a strikingly similar trend emerges between $\Delta$SFMS and the time-to-coalescence for mini mergers. Controlling for redshift, stellar mass, environment, and gas fraction, we show that individual mini merger events yield small enhancements in SFRs and asymmetries that are sustained on long timescales (at least $\sim3$ Gyr after coalescence, on average) -- in contrast to major/minor merger remnants which peak at much greater amplitudes but are consistent with controls only $\sim1$ Gyr after coalescence. Integrating the boosts in SFRs and asymmetries driven by $\mu\geq0.01$ mergers since $z=0.7$ in TNG50 SFGs, we show that mini mergers are responsible for (i) $55$ per cent of all merger-driven star formation and (ii) $70$ per cent of merger-driven asymmetric structure. Due to their relative frequency and prolonged boost timescales, mini mergers dominate over their minor and major counterparts in driving star formation and asymmetry in SFGs., Comment: 31 pages; 19 figures; MNRAS accepted; Image data available via the TNG website: www.tng-project.org/bottrell23

Deep observations with JWST have revealed an emerging population of red point-like sources that could provide a link between the postulated supermassive black hole seeds and observed quasars. In this work we present a JWST/NIRSpec spectrum from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey, of a massive accreting black hole at $z=8.50$, displaying a clear broad-line component as inferred from the H$\beta$ line with FWHM = $3439\pm413$ km s$^{-1}$, typical of the broad line region of an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The AGN nature of this object is further supported by high ionization, as inferred from emission lines, and a point-source morphology. We compute the black hole mass of log$_{10}(M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot)=8.17\pm0.42$, and a bolometric luminosity of $L_{\rm bol}\sim6.6\times10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$. These values imply that our object is accreting at $\sim 40\%$ of the Eddington limit. Detailed modeling of the spectral energy distribution in the optical and near-infrared, together with constraints from ALMA, indicate an upper limit on the stellar mass of log$_{10}(M_{\rm *}/M_\odot)<8.7$, which would lead to an unprecedented ratio of black hole to host mass of at least $\sim 30 \%$. This is orders of magnitude higher compared to the local QSOs, but is consistent with recent AGN studies at high redshift with JWST. This finding suggests that a non-negligible fraction of supermassive black holes either started out from massive seeds and/or grew at a super-Eddington rate at high redshift. Given the predicted number densities of high-$z$ faint AGN, future NIRSpec observations of larger samples will allow us to further investigate the galaxy-black hole co-evolution in the early Universe., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for a publication in ApJL

We present JWST NIRSpec prism spectroscopy of gravitationally lensed galaxies at $z\gtrsim9$ found behind the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744 in the UNCOVER Cycle 1 Treasury Program. We confirm the source redshift via emission lines and/or the Ly$\alpha$ break feature for ten galaxies at z=8.50-13.08 down to $M_{\rm UV}=-17.3$. We achieve a high confirmation rate of 100\% for $z>9$ candidates reported in Atek et al. (2023). Using six sources with multiple emission line detections, we find that the offset of the redshift estimates between the lines and the Ly$\alpha$ break alone with prism can be as large as $\pm0.2$, raising caution in designing future follow-up spectroscopy for the break-only sources with ALMA. With spec-$z$ confirmed sources in UNCOVER and the literature, we derive lower limits on the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) at $z\simeq9$-12 and find these lower limits to be consistent with recent photometric measurements. We identify at least two unambiguous and several possible active galactic nucleus (AGN) systems based on X-ray emission, broad line (BL) H$\beta$, high ionization line (e.g., NIV]1487, CIV1549) detections, and excess in UVLF. This requires the AGN LFs at $z\simeq$ 9-10 to be comparable or even higher than the X-ray AGN LF estimated at $z\sim6$ and indicates a plausible cause of the high abundance of $z>9$ galaxies claimed in recent photometric studies may be AGNs. One UV-luminous source is confirmed at the same redshift as a dusty BL AGN at $z=8.50$ with a physical separation of 380 kpc in the source plane. These two sources show blueward Ly$\alpha$ line or continuum emission, suggesting that they reside in the same ionized bubble with a radius of $7.69\pm0.18$ pMpc. Our results imply that AGNs have a non-negligible contribution to cosmic reionization., Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, ApJ in press

We report JWST/NIRSpec spectra of three distant T-type brown dwarfs identified in the Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER) survey of the Abell 2744 lensing field. One source was previously reported as a candidate T dwarf on the basis of NIRCam photometry, while two sources were initially identified as candidate active galactic nuclei. Low-resolution 1--5 $\mu$m spectra confirm the presence of molecular features consistent with T dwarf atmospheres, and comparison to spectral standards infers classifications of sdT1, T6, and T8--T9. The warmest source, UNCOVER-BD-1, shows evidence of subsolar metallicity, and atmosphere model fits indicates T$_{eff}$ = 1300 K and [M/H] $\sim$ $-$1.0, making this one of the few spectroscopically-confirmed T subdwarfs known. The coldest source, UNCOVER-BD-3, is near the T/Y dwarf boundary with T$_{eff}$ = 550 K, and our analysis indicates the presence of PH$_3$ in the 3--5~$\mu$m region, favored over CO$_2$ and a possible indicator of subsolar metallicity. We estimate distances of 0.9--4.5 kpc from the Galactic midplane, making these the most distant brown dwarfs with spectroscopic confirmation. Population simulations indicate high probabilities of membership in the Galactic thick disk for two of these brown dwarfs, and potential halo membership for UNCOVER-BD-1. Our simulations indicate that there are approximately 5 T dwarfs and 1--2 L dwarfs in the Abell 2744 field down to F444W = 30 AB mag, roughly one-third of which are thick disk members. These results highlight the utility of deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy for identifying and characterizing the oldest metal-poor brown dwarfs in the Milky Way., Comment: revised, accepted by ApJ 22 Nov 2023

We present a comprehensive multi-wavelength study of 5 poststarburst galaxies with $M_\ast > 10^{11} M_\odot$ at $z\sim 0.7$, examining their stars, gas, and current and past star-formation activities. Using optical images from the Subaru telescope and Hubble Space Telescope, we observe a high incidence of companion galaxies and low surface brightness tidal features, indicating that quenching is closely related to interactions between galaxies. From optical spectra provided by the LEGA-C survey, we model the stellar continuum to derive the star-formation histories and show that the stellar masses of progenitors ranging from $2\times10^9 M_\odot$ to $10^{11} M_\odot$, undergoing a burst of star formation several hundred million years prior to observation, with a decay time scale of $\sim100$ million years. Our ALMA observations detect CO(2-1) emission in four galaxies, with the molecular gas spreading over up to $>1"$, or $\sim10$ kpc, with a mass of up to $\sim2 \times10^{10} M_\odot$. However, star-forming regions are unresolved by either the slit spectra or 3~GHz continuum observed by the Very Large Array. Comparisons between the star-formation rates and gas masses, and the sizes of CO emission and star-forming regions suggest a low star-forming efficiency. We show that the star-formation rates derived from IR and radio luminosities with commonly-used calibrations tend to overestimate the true values because of the prodigious amount of radiation from old stars and the contribution from AGN, as the optical spectra reveal weak AGN-driven outflows., Comment: Accepted by ApJ

The identification of sources driving cosmic reionization, a major phase transition from neutral Hydrogen to ionized plasma around 600-800 Myr after the Big Bang (Dayal et al. 2018, Mason et al. 2019, Robertson et al. 2022), has been a matter of intense debate (Robertson et al. 2022). Some models suggest that high ionizing emissivity and escape fractions ($f_{\rm esc}$) from quasars support their role in driving cosmic reionization (Madau & Haardt 2015, Mitra et al. 2018). Others propose that the high $f_{\rm esc}$ values from bright galaxies generates sufficient ionizing radiation to drive this process (Naidu et al. 2020). Finally, a few studies suggest that the number density of faint galaxies, when combined with a stellar-mass-dependent model of ionizing efficiency and $f_{\rm esc}$, can effectively dominate cosmic reionization (Finkelstein et al. 2019, Dayal et al. 2020). However, so far, low-mass galaxies have eluded comprehensive spectroscopic studies owing to their extreme faintness. Here we report an analysis of eight ultra-faint galaxies (in a very small field) during the epoch of reionization with absolute magnitudes between $M_{\rm UV}$ $\sim -17$ to $-15$ mag (down to 0.005 $L^{\star}$. We find that faint galaxies during the Universe's first billion years produce ionizing photons with log($\xi_{\mathrm{ion}}$/ Hz erg$^{-1}$) =$25.80\pm 0.14$, a factor of 4 higher than commonly assumed values (Robertson et al. 2015). If this field is representative of the large scale distribution of faint galaxies, the rate of ionizing photons exceeds that needed for reionization, even for escape fractions of order five per cent., Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Published in Nature

Early JWST observations have uncovered a new population of red sources that might represent a previously overlooked phase of supermassive black hole growth (Kocevski et al. 2023; Matthee et al. 2023, Labb\'e et al. 2023). One of the most intriguing examples is an extremely red, point-like object that was found to be triply-imaged by the strong lensing (SL) cluster Abell 2744 (Furtak et al. 2023). Here we present deep JWST/NIRSpec observations of this object, Abell2744-QSO1. The spectroscopy confirms that the three images are of the same object, and that it is a highly reddened ($A_V\simeq3$) broad emission-line Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) at a redshift of $z_{\mathrm{spec}}=7.0451\pm0.0005$. From the width of H$\beta$ ($\mathrm{FWHM}=2800\pm250\,\frac{\mathrm{km}}{\mathrm{s}}$) we derive a black hole mass of $M_{\mathrm{BH}}=4_{-1}^{+2}\times10^7\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. We infer a very high ratio of black hole to galaxy mass of at least 3%, an order of magnitude more than is seen in local galaxies (Bennert et al. 2011), and possibly as high as 100%. The lack of strong metal lines in the spectrum together with the high bolometric luminosity ($L_{\mathrm{bol}}=(1.1\pm0.3)\times10^{45}\,\frac{\mathrm{erg}}{\mathrm{s}}$) indicate that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit. The rapid growth and high black hole to galaxy mass ratio of A2744-QSO1 suggest that it may represent the missing link between black hole seeds (Volonteri et al. 2021) and the first luminous quasars (Fan et al. 2022)., Comment: Published in Nature. Updated to the accepted version

Observations of high-redshift galaxies provide a critical direct test to the theories of early galaxy formation, yet to date, only three have been spectroscopically confirmed at $z>12$. Due to strong gravitational lensing over a wide area, the galaxy cluster field A2744 is ideal for searching for the earliest galaxies. Here we present JWST/NIRSpec observations of two galaxies: a robust detection at $z_{\rm spec} = 12.393^{+0.004}_{-0.001}$, and a plausible candidate at $z_{\rm spec} = 13.079^{+0.013}_{-0.001}$. The galaxies are discovered in JWST/NIRCam imaging and their distances are inferred with JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy, all from the JWST Cycle 1 UNCOVER Treasury survey. Detailed stellar population modeling using JWST NIRCam and NIRSpec data corroborates the primeval characteristics of these galaxies: low mass ($\sim 10^8~{\rm M_\odot}$), young, rapidly-assembling, metal-poor, and star-forming. Interestingly, both galaxies are spatially resolved, having lensing-corrected rest-UV effective radii on the order of 300-400 pc, which are notably larger than other spectroscopically confirmed systems at similar redshifts. The observed dynamic range of $z \gtrsim 10$ sizes spans over 1 order of magnitude, implying a significant scatter in the size-mass relation at early times. Deep into the epoch of reionization, these discoveries elucidate the emergence of the first galaxies., Comment: ApJL in press; 16 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables

The James Webb Space Telescope is now detecting early black holes (BHs) as they transition from "seeds" to supermassive BHs. Recently Bogdan et al. (2023) reported the detection of an X-ray luminous supermassive BH, UHZ-1, with a photometric redshift at $z > 10$. Such an extreme source at this very high redshift provides new insights on seeding and growth models for BHs given the short time available for formation and growth. Harnessing the exquisite sensitivity of JWST/NIRSpec, here we report the spectroscopic confirmation of UHZ-1 at $z = 10.073 \pm 0.002$. We find that the NIRSpec/Prism spectrum is typical of recently discovered z~10 galaxies, characterized primarily by star-formation features. We see no clear evidence of the powerful X-ray source in the rest-frame UV/optical spectrum, which may suggest heavy obscuration of the central BH, in line with the Compton-thick column density measured in the X-rays. We perform a stellar population fit simultaneously to the new NIRSpec spectroscopy and previously available photometry. The fit yields a stellar mass estimate for the host galaxy that is significantly better constrained than prior photometric estimates ($M_*\sim 1.4^{+0.3}_{-0.4} \times 10^8 M_\odot$). Given the predicted BH mass ($M_{\rm BH}\sim10^7-10^8 M_\odot$), the resulting ratio of $M_{\rm BH}/M_*$ remains two to three orders of magnitude higher than local values, thus lending support to the heavy seeding channel for the formation of supermassive BHs within the first billion years of cosmic evolution., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, ApJL in-press. Updated to accepted version incl. X-ray image

We study the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) of the prototypical low-mass active galactic nucleus (AGN) in NGC 4395. We jointly model the optical through mid-infrared SED with a combination of galaxy and AGN light, and find that on arcsecond scales, the AGN dominates at most wavelengths. However, there is still some ambiguity about emission from the galaxy, owing partially to the strong short-term variability of the black hole. We investigate the use of smooth and clumpy-torus models in order to disentangle the nuclear infrared emission, as well as exploring the use of poloidal wind emission to account for the blue spectral slope observed in the near-IR. Even when simultaneously fitting the full optical-IR spectral range, we find that degeneracies still remain in the best-fit models. We conclude that high spatial resolution and wider wavelength coverage with the James Webb Space Telescope is needed to understand the mid-infrared emission in this complex highly-variable object, which is the best nearby example to provide a blueprint to finding other low-mass AGN via their mid-infrared emission in the future., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures

Quasar-driven galactic outflows are a major driver of the evolution of massive galaxies. We report observations of a powerful galactic-scale outflow in a $z=3$ extremely red, intrinsically luminous ($L_{\rm bol}\simeq 5\times 10^{47}$erg s$^{-1}$) quasar SDSSJ1652+1728 with the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on board JWST. We analyze the kinematics of rest-frame optical emission lines and identify the quasar-driven outflow extending out to $\sim 10$ kpc from the quasar with a velocity offset of ($v_{r}=\pm 500$ km s$^{-1}$) and high velocity dispersion (FWHM$=700-2400$ km s$^{-1}$). Due to JWST's unprecedented surface brightness sensitivity in the near-infrared -- we unambiguously show that the powerful high velocity outflow in an extremely red quasar (ERQ) encompasses a large swath of the host galaxy's interstellar medium (ISM). Using the kinematics and dynamics of optical emission lines, we estimate the mass outflow rate -- in the warm ionized phase alone -- to be at least $2300\pm1400$ $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. We measure a momentum flux ratio between the outflow and the quasar accretion disk of $\sim$1 on kpc scale, indicating that the outflow was likely driven in a relatively high ($>10^{23}$cm$^{-2}$) column density environment through radiation pressure on dust grains. We find a coupling efficiency between the bolometric luminosity of the quasar and the outflow of 0.1$\%$, matching the theoretical prediction of the minimum coupling efficiency necessary for negative quasar feedback. The outflow has sufficient energetics to drive the observed turbulence seen in shocked regions of the quasar host galaxy, likely directly responsible for prolonging the time it takes for gas to cool efficiently., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, submitted for publication in ApJ

Quasar-driven outflows on galactic scales are a routinely invoked ingredient for galaxy formation models. We report the discovery of ionized gas nebulae as traced by [O III] $\lambda$5007 AA emission surrounding three luminous red quasars at $z \sim 0.4$ from Gemini Integral Field Unit (IFU) observations. All these nebulae feature unprecedented pairs of "superbubbles" extending $\sim$20 kpc in diameter, and the line-of-sight velocity difference between the red- and blue-shifted bubbles reaches up to $\sim$1200 km s$^{-1}$. Their spectacular dual-bubble morphology (in analogy to the Galactic "Fermi bubbles") and their kinematics provide unambiguous evidence for galaxy-wide quasar-driven outflows, in parallel with the quasi-spherical outflows similar in size from luminous Type-1 and -2 quasars at concordant redshift. These bubble pairs manifest themselves as a signpost of the short-lived superbubble ``break-out'' phase, when the quasar wind drives the bubbles to escape the confinement from the dense environment and plunge into the galactic halo with a high-velocity expansion., Comment: 47 pages, 15 figures, Published in Science Advances on Jul 12 2023

We present Hubble Space Telescope photometry in optical (F475X) and near-infrared (F110W) bands of the globular cluster (GC) systems of the inner halos of a sample of 15 massive elliptical galaxies. The targets are selected from the volume-limited MASSIVE survey, and chosen to sample a range of environments from sparsely populated groups to BCGs in dense clusters. We also present a quantitative model of the relation between (F475X - F110W) colour and cluster metallicity [M/H], using simulated GCs. Because much of the GC population in such galaxies is built up through accretion, the metallicity distribution of the GC systems might be expected to vary with galaxy environment. The photometry is used to create a completeness-corrected metallicity distribution for each galaxy in the sample, and to fit a double Gaussian curve to each histogram in order to model the two standard red and blue subpopulations. Finally, the properties of the GC metallicity distribution are correlated against galaxy environment. We find that almost no GCS properties and host galaxy environmental properties are correlated, with the exception of a weak but consistent correlation between blue fraction and nth-nearest neighbour surface density. The results suggest that the systemic properties of the GCS, at least in the inner to mid-halo regions, are influenced more strongly by the local environment at early times, rather than by the environmental properties we see today., Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ