Spatially Resolved Stellar Populations of 0.3 < z < 6.0 Galaxies in WHL 0137–08 and MACS 0647+70 Clusters as Revealed by JWST: How Do Galaxies Grow and Quench over Cosmic Time?

Abstract

We study the spatially resolved stellar populations of 444 galaxies at 0.3 &lt; z &lt; 6.0 in two clusters (WHL 0137–08 and MACS 0647+70) and a blank field, combining imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope and JWST to perform spatially resolved spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling using piXedfit. The high spatial resolution of the imaging data combined with magnification from gravitational lensing in the cluster fields allows us to resolve a large fraction of our galaxies (109) to subkiloparsec scales. At redshifts around cosmic noon and higher (2.5 ≲ z ≲ 6.0), we find mass-doubling times to be independent of radius, inferred from flat specific star formation rate (sSFR) radial profiles and similarities between the half-mass and half-SFR radii. At lower redshifts (1.5 ≲ z ≲ 2.5), a significant fraction of our star-forming galaxies shows evidence for nuclear starbursts, inferred from a centrally elevated sSFR and a much smaller half-SFR radius compared to the half-mass radius. At later epochs, we find more galaxies suppress star formation in their centers but are still actively forming stars in the disk. Overall, these trends point toward a picture of inside-out galaxy growth consistent with theoretical models and simulations. We also observe a tight relationship between the central mass surface density and global stellar mass with ∼0.38 dex scatter. Our analysis demonstrates the potential of spatially resolved SED analysis with JWST data. Future analysis with larger samples will be able to further explore the assembly of galaxy mass and the growth of their structures.

A Multiwavelength Investigation of Dust and Stellar Mass Distributions in Galaxies: Insights from High-resolution JWST Imaging

“…This galaxy is classified as UVJquiescent and thus is relatively evolved (while its detection in MIRI indicates little ongoing star formation, which is consistent with its location on the mass-SFR plane; Figure 1). Compact stellar cores in quiescent galaxies of this mass range have been reported in previous studies (van Szomoru et al 2012;Morishita et al 2014;Abdurro'uf et al 2023). One potential explanation is the inside-out growth and subsequent inside-out quenching process, whereby star formation activities move outward as galaxies age, or through mergers in quiescent galaxies (Förster Schreiber et al 2009;Law et al 2009;Nelson et al 2012Nelson et al , 2013Förster Schreiber et al 2018;Wilman et al 2020;Matharu et al 2022).…”

COSMOS-Web: An Overview of the JWST Cosmic Origins Survey

“…The high-resolution and deep images provided by COSMOS-Web NIRCam images will enable detailed pixelby-pixel SED fitting of galaxies across a wide redshift range and down to lower stellar masses than has been possible to-date (e.g., Wuyts et al 2012;Jafariyazani et al 2019;Abdurro'uf et al 2021Abdurro'uf et al , 2023. The resulting mass, SFR, and dust attenuation maps can be used to study the star formation and quenching process in galaxies (e.g., Tacchella et al 2015).…”

An Atlas of Color-selected Quiescent Galaxies at z > 3 in Public JWST Fields

“…JWST data were included in updated magnification maps generated with GLAFIC (Oguri 2010(Oguri , 2021. For an alternative modeling of the photometry on subgalactic spatial scales in this field and potential quiescent candidates at high redshift, we refer the reader to Abdurro'uf et al (2023).…”