Dr Harley Katz

Abstract:

We report the discovery of a Lyα emitter (LAE) candidate in the immediate foreground of the quasar PSO J158-14 at zQSO = 6.0685 at a projected distance ∼29 pkpc that is associated with an extremely metal-poor absorption system. This system was found in archival observations of the quasar field with the Very Large Telescope (VLT)/Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) and was previously missed in searches of absorption systems using quasar absorption line spectroscopy, as it imparts no detectable metal absorption lines on the background quasar spectrum. The detected Lyα emission line at a redshift of zLAE = 6.0323 is well aligned with the outer edge of the quasar’s proximity zone and can plausibly cause its observed damping wing if it is associated with a proximate subdamped Lyα absorption system with a column density of log N HI / cm − 2 ≈ 19.7 . A >10 hr medium-resolution spectrum of the quasar observed with the Magellan/Folded-port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) and VLT/X-Shooter spectrographs reveals a metallicity constraint of [Z/H] < −3. Such low metallicity makes this system an extremely metal-poor galaxy candidate and provides an exciting site to study possible signatures of Population III stars.

Abstract:

The JWST discovery of “little red dots” (LRDs) is reshaping our picture of the early Universe, yet the physical mechanisms driving their compact size and UV-optical colors remain elusive. Here, we report an unusually bright LRD (zspec = 3.1) observed as part of the RUBIES program. This LRD exhibits broad emission lines (FWHM ∼ 4000 km s−1), a blue UV continuum, a clear Balmer break, and a red continuum sampled out to rest-frame 4 μm with MIRI. We develop a new joint galaxy and active galactic nucleus (AGN) model within the Prospector Bayesian inference framework and perform spectrophotometric modeling using NIRCam, MIRI, and NIRSpec/Prism observations. Our fiducial model reveals a M* ∼ 109 M⊙ galaxy alongside a dust-reddened AGN driving the optical emission. Explaining the rest-frame optical color as a reddened AGN requires AV ≳ 3, suggesting that a great majority of the accretion disk energy is reradiated as dust emission. Yet, despite clear AGN signatures, we find a surprising lack of hot torus emission, which implies that either the dust emission in this object must be cold, or the red continuum must instead be driven by a massive, evolved stellar population of the host galaxy—seemingly inconsistent with the high-EW broad lines (Hα rest-frame EW ∼ 800 Å). The widths and luminosities of Pa-β, Pa-δ, Pa-γ, and Hα imply a modest black hole mass of MBH ∼ 108 M⊙. Additionally, we identify a narrow blueshifted He i λ 1.083 μm absorption feature in NIRSpec/G395M spectra, signaling an ionized outflow with kinetic energy up to ∼1% the luminosity of the AGN. The low redshift of RUBIES-BLAGN-1, combined with the depth and richness of the JWST imaging and spectroscopic observations, provides a unique opportunity to build a physical model for these so-far mysterious LRDs, which may prove to be a crucial phase in the early formation of massive galaxies and their supermassive black holes.

Abstract:

We present the Red Unknowns: Bright Infrared Extragalactic Survey (RUBIES) providing JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of red sources selected across ∼150 arcmin² from public JWST/NIRCam imaging in the UDS and EGS fields. The novel observing strategy of RUBIES offers a well-quantified selection function. The survey has been optimised to reach high (>70%) spectroscopic completeness for bright and red (F150W-F444W>2) sources that are very rare. To place these rare sources in context, we simultaneously observed a reference sample of the 2phot<10 with both the PRISM and G395M dispersers and ∼1500 targets at zphot>3 using only the G395M disperser. The RUBIES data reveal a highly diverse population of red sources that span a broad redshift range (zspec∼1-9), with photometric redshift scatter and an outlier fraction that are three times higher than for similarly bright sources that are less red. This diversity is not apparent from the photometric spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Only spectroscopy reveals that the SEDs encompass a mixture of galaxies with dust-obscured star formation, extreme line emission, a lack of star formation indicating early quenching, and luminous active galactic nuclei. As a first demonstration of our broader selection function we compared the stellar masses and rest-frame U-V colours of the red sources and our reference sample. We find that the red sources are typically more massive (M∗∼10^10-11.5 M⊙) across all redshifts. However, we also find that the most massive systems span a wide range in U-V colour. We describe our data reduction procedure and data quality, and we publicly release the reduced RUBIES data and vetted spectroscopic redshifts of the first half of the survey through the DAWN JWST Archive.