James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post


Literature
Date: 11/7/2023

Harvard ADS: Evolution of the Size-Mass Relation of Star-forming Galaxies Since z=5.5 Revealed by CEERS


Paper abstract: We combine deep imaging data from the CEERS early release JWST survey and HST imaging from CANDELS to examine the size-mass relation of star-forming galaxies and the morphology-quenching relation at stellar masses \textrm{M}_{*} >= 10^{9.5} \ \textrm{M}_{\odot} over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 5.5. In this study with a sample of 2,450 galaxies, we separate star-forming and quiescent galaxies based on their star-formation activity and confirm that star-forming and quiescent galaxies have different morphologies out to z=5.5, extending the results of earlier studies out to higher redshifts. We find that star-forming and quiescent galaxies have typical S\'{e}rsic indices of n~1.3 and n~4.3, respectively. Focusing on star-forming galaxies, we find that the slope of the size-mass relation is nearly constant with redshift, as was found previously, but shows a modest increase at z ~ 4.2. The intercept in the size-mass relation declines out to z=5.5 at rates that are similar to what earlier studies found. The intrinsic scatter in the size-mass relation is relatively constant out to z=5.5.