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Accepted manuscript

MOSEL survey: Unwrapping the Epoch of Reionization through mimic galaxies at Cosmic Noon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2024

Ravi Jaiswar
Affiliation:
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley WA, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Bentley WA, Australia
Anshu Gupta
Affiliation:
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley WA, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Bentley WA, Australia
Elisabete da Cunha
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Bentley WA, Australia International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, Crawley WA, Australia
Cathryn M. Trott
Affiliation:
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, Bentley WA, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Bentley WA, Australia
Anishya Harshan
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Bentley WA, Australia University of Ljubljana, Department of Mathematics and Physics, Jadranska ulica 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Andrew Battisti
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Bentley WA, Australia Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia
Ben Forrest
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.

Abstract

The nature of the first galaxies that reionized the universe during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) remains unclear. Attempts to directly determine spectral properties of these early galaxies are affected by both limited photometric constraints across the spectrum and by the opacity of the intergalactic medium (IGM) to the Lyman Continuum (LyC) at high redshift. We approach this by analysing properties of analogous extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs, [OIII]+Hbeta EW> 400) at 2.5 < z < 4 from the ZFOURGE survey using the Multi-wavelength Analysis of Galaxy Physical Properties (MAGPHYS) SED fitting code. We compare these to galaxies at z > 5.5 observed with the James Webb Space Telesope (JWST) with self-consistent spectral energy distribution fitting methodology. This work focuses on the comparison of their UV slopes (βP), ionizing photon production efficiencies ξion, star formation rates and dust properties to determine the effectiveness of this analogue selection technique. We report the median ionizing photon production efficiencies as for our ZFOURGE control, ZFOURGE EELG, JADES and CEERS samples respectively. ZFOURGE EELGs are 0.57 dex lower in stellar mass and have half the dust extinction, compared to their ZFOURGE control counterparts. They also have a similar specific star formation rates and βP to the z > 5.5 samples. We find that EELGs at low redshift (2.5 < z < 4) are analogous to EoR galaxies in their dust attenuation and specific star formation rates. Their extensive photometric coverage and the accessibility of their LyC region opens pathways to infer stellar population properties in the EoR.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Astronomical Society of Australia

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