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GN-z11 in context: possible signatures of globular cluster precursors at redshift 10 by Senchyna, Peter; Plat, Adele; Stark, Daniel P.; Rudie, Gwen C. is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is GN-z11 in context: possible signatures of globular cluster precursors at redshift 10 about?

The first JWST spectroscopy of the luminous galaxy GN-z11 simultaneously both established its redshift at $z=10.6$ and revealed a rest-ultraviolet spectrum dominated by signatures of highly-ionized nitrogen, which has so far defied clear interpretation. Here we present a reappraisal of this spectrum in the context of both detailed nebular modeling and nearby metal-poor reference galaxies. The N IV] emission enables the first nebular density measurement in a star-forming galaxy at $z>10$, and reveals evidence for extremely high densities $n_e\gtrsim 10^5$ $\mathrm{cm^{-3}}$. We definitively establish with a suite of photoionization models that regardless of ionization mechanism and accounting for depletion and this density enhancement, an ISM substantially enriched in nitrogen ($[\mathrm{N/O}]=+0.52$) is required to reproduce the observed lines. A search of local UV databases confirms that nearby metal-poor galaxies power N IV] emission, but that this emission is uniformly associated with lower densities than implied in GN-z11. We compare to a unique nearby galaxy, Mrk~996, where a high concentration of Wolf-Rayet stars and their CNO-processed wind ejecta produce a UV spectrum remar

Author

Senchyna, Peter; Plat, Adele; Stark, Daniel P.; Rudie, Gwen C.

Published

2023

Language

EN