Early Results from GLASS-JWST. I: Confirmation of Lensed $z⩾7$ Lyman-Break Galaxies Behind the Abell 2744 Cluster With NIRISS

Abstract

We present the first search for $z⩾7$, continuum-confirmed sources with NIRISS/WFS spectroscopy over the Abell 2744 Frontier Fields cluster, as part of the GLASS-JWST ERS survey. With $\sim 15$ hrs of pre-imaging and multi-angle grism exposures in the F115W, F150W, and F200W filters, we describe the general data handling (i.e., reduction, cleaning, modeling, and extraction processes) and analysis for the GLASS-JWST survey. We showcase the power of JWST to peer deep into reionization, when most intergalactic hydrogen is neutral, by confirming two galaxies at $z=8.04\pm 0.15$ and $z=7.90\pm 0.13$ by means of their Lyman breaks. Fainter continuum spectra are observed in both the F150W and F200W bands, indicative of blue ($-1.69$ and $-1.33$) UV slopes and moderately-bright absolute magnitudes ($-20.37$ and $-19.68$ mag). We do not detect strong Ly$\alpha$ in either galaxy, but do observe tentative ($\sim 2.7-3.8\sigma$) HeII$\lambda$1640 A, OIII]$\lambda \lambda$1661,1666 A, and NIII]$\lambda \lambda$1747,1749 A line emission in one, suggestive of low metallicity, star-forming systems with possible non-thermal contributions. These novel observations provide a first look at the extraordinary potential of JWST/NIRISS for confirming representative samples of bright $z⩾7$ sources in the absence of strong emission lines, and gain unprecedented insight into their contributions towards cosmic reionization.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJL on 1st September 2022, after minor modifications based on the referee report. 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (52)

• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
• Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys
• UV Luminosity Functions at redshifts z~4 to z~10: 10000 Galaxies from HST Legacy Fields
• Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH): An Overview
• UltraVISTA: a new ultra-deep near-infrared survey in COSMOS
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function Over the First Two Billion Years
• The Frontier Fields: Survey Design
• A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at z=11.1 Measured with Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy
• The Abundance of Star-Forming Galaxies in the Redshift Range 8.5 to 12: New Results from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• A dusty, normal galaxy in the epoch of reionization
• The Dearth of z~10 Galaxies in all HST Legacy Fields -- The Rapid Evolution of the Galaxy Population in the First 500 Myr
• Lyman-alpha and CIII] Emission in z=7-9 Galaxies: Accelerated Reionization Around Luminous Star Forming Systems?
• Nuclear activity versus star formation: emission-line diagnostics at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths
• Dust in the reionization era: ALMA observations of a $z$=8.38 Galaxy
• Full-Data Results of Hubble Frontier Fields: UV Luminosity Functions at $z\sim 6-10$ and a Consistent Picture of Cosmic Reionization
• The GLASS James Webb Space Telescope Early Release Science Program. I. Survey Design and Release Plans
• A Rapidly Star-forming Galaxy 700 Million Years After the Big Bang at z=7.51
• Lyman-alpha Emission from a Luminous z=8.68 Galaxy: Implications for Galaxies as Tracers of Cosmic Reionization
• Inferences on the Timeline of Reionization at z~8 From the KMOS Lens-Amplified Spectroscopic Survey
• A Spectroscopic Redshift Measurement for a Luminous Lyman Break Galaxy at z=7.730 using Keck/MOSFIRE
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). I. Survey overview and first data release
• Z > 7 galaxies with red Spitzer/IRAC [3.6]-[4.5] colors in the full CANDELS data set: the brightest-known galaxies at Z ~ 7-9 and a probable spectroscopic confirmation at Z=7.48
• Detection of the Far-infrared [O III] and Dust Emission in a Galaxy at Redshift 8.312: Early Metal Enrichment in the Heart of the Reionization Era
• A lack of evolution in the very bright-end of the galaxy luminosity function from z = 8-10
• RELICS: Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey
• The changing Lya optical depth in the range 6<z<9 from MOSFIRE spectroscopy of Y-dropouts
• Spectroscopic confirmation of two Lyman break galaxies at redshift beyond 7
• Constraining the neutral fraction of hydrogen in the IGM at redshift 7.5
• Physical Properties of Galaxies from z=2-4
• The Brightest Of Reionizing Galaxies Survey: Design and Preliminary Results
• A Geometrically Supported $z\sim 10$ Candidate Multiply-Imaged by the Hubble Frontier Fields Cluster Abell 2744
• A Census of the Bright z=8.5-11 Universe with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes in the CANDELS Fields
• A spectroscopic search for AGN activity in the reionization era
• The ASTRODEEP Frontier Fields Catalogues: II - Photometric redshifts and rest-frame properties in Abell-2744 and MACS-J0416
• The Luminosity Function at z~8 from 97 Y-band dropouts: Inferences About Reionization
• The Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph for the James Webb Space Telescope -- II. Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy
• HFF-DeepSpace Photometric Catalogs of the Twelve Hubble Frontier Fields, Clusters and Parallels: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts, and Stellar Masses
• A dusty compact object bridging galaxies and quasars at cosmic dawn
• MMT Spectroscopy of Lyman-alpha at z$\simeq$7: Evidence for Accelerated Reionization Around Massive Galaxies
• The bright-end galaxy candidates at z ~ 9 from 79 independent HST fields
• The bright end of the z ~ 7 UV Luminosity Function from a wide and deep HAWK-I survey
• Probing Cosmic Dawn : Ages and Star Formation Histories of Candidate $z\ge$9 Galaxies
• Spectroscopic Constraints on UV Metal Line Emission at z~6-9: The Nature of Lyman-alpha Emitting Galaxies in the Reionization-Era
• Young Galaxy Candidates in the Hubble Frontier Fields. I. Abell 2744
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). III. A census of Lyα Emission at $z\gtrsim$7 from HST Spectroscopy
• Stellar Properties of z ~ 8 Galaxies in the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey
• HST Grism Observations of a Gravitationally Lensed Redshift 10 Galaxy
• The Physical Properties of Luminous $z\gtrsim 8$ Galaxies and Implications for the Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density From $\sim$0.35 deg${}^2$ of (Pure-)Parallel HST Observations
• Improving $z\sim 7-11$ Galaxy Property Estimates with JWST/NIRCam Medium-Band Photometry
• RELICS: Properties of z>5.5 Galaxies Inferred from Spitzer and Hubble Imaging Including A Candidate z~6.8 Strong [OIII] Emitter
• SuperBoRG: Search for The Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies and Quasars in HST Parallel Imaging Data
• Magnification Bias of Distant Galaxies in the Hubble Frontier Fields: Testing Wave vs. Particle Dark Matter Predictions

Cited by in corpus (30)

• A Comprehensive Study on Galaxies at z~9-16 Found in the Early JWST Data: UV Luminosity Functions and Cosmic Star-Formation History at the Pre-Reionization Epoch
• The James Webb Space Telescope Mission
• On the stunning abundance of super-early, massive galaxies revealed by JWST
• Nitrogen enhancements 440 Myr after the Big Bang: super-solar N/O, a tidal disruption event or a dense stellar cluster in GN-z11?
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. XIV: A spectroscopically confirmed protocluster 650 million years after the Big Bang
• Stochastic star formation in early galaxies: JWST implications
• Closing in on the sources of cosmic reionization: first results from the GLASS-JWST program
• JWST UNCOVER: Discovery of $z>9$ Galaxy Candidates Behind the Lensing Cluster Abell 2744
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. XI: Stellar masses and mass-to-light ratio of z>7 galaxies
• The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic Dark Ages seen with JWST
• The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. III. Strong lensing model of Abell 2744 and its infalling regions
• Deep ALMA redshift search of a z~12 GLASS-JWST galaxy candidate
• JWST FRESCO: a comprehensive census of H$\beta$+[OIII] emitters at 6.8<z<9.0 in the GOODS fields
• JWST UNCOVER: The Overabundance of Ultraviolet-luminous Galaxies at $z>9$
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. VI: Extreme rest-optical equivalent widths detected in NIRISS Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy
• The evolution of the SFR and Sigma-SFR of galaxies in cosmic morning (4 < z < 10)
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. IX: First spectroscopic confirmation of low-mass quiescent galaxies at $z>2$ with NIRISS
• The mass-metallicity relation as a ruler for galaxy evolution: insights from the James Webb Space Telescope
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. XXVII. The mass-metallicity relation in lensed field galaxies at cosmic noon with NIRISS
• Early Results from GLASS-JWST XXIII: The transmission of Lyman-alpha from UV-faint z ~ 3-6 galaxies
• The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. IV. Data release of 263 spectra from 245 unique sources
• Evolution of the UV slope of galaxies at cosmic morning (z > 4): the properties of extremely blue galaxies
• FORECAST: a flexible software to forward model cosmological hydrodynamical simulations mimicking real observations
• The Carousel Lens: A Well-Modeled Strong Lens with Multiple Lensed Sources
• The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Programme: The NIRISS Spectroscopic Catalogue
• Near-infrared characterization of ultra-diffuse galaxies in Abell 2744 by JWST/NIRISS imaging
• A Lyman continuum analysis for $\sim 100$ galaxies at $z_{\text{spec}}\sim 3$ in the Abell 2744 Cluster Field
• Lyman-$\alpha$ radiation pressure regulates star formation efficiency
• Not just PAH${}_{3.3}$: why galaxies turn red in the Near-Infrared
• Mapping the z>=5 SiIV Column Density Distribution onto the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function Using the Cumulative Absorption Cross Section