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Harvard ADS: Evidence of Extreme Ionization Conditions and Low Metallicity in GHZ2/GLASS-Z12 from a Combined Analysis of NIRSpec and MIRI Observations

Paper abstract: GHZ2/GLASS-z12, one of the most distant galaxies found in JWST observations, has been recently observed with both the NIRSpec and MIRI spectrographs, establishing a spectroscopic redshift z _spec = 12.34 and making it the first system at z > 10 with complete spectroscopic coverage from rest-frame UV to optical wavelengths. This galaxy is identified as a strong C IV _?1549 emitter (EW = 46 Å) with many other detected emission lines, such as N IV] _?1488, He II _?1640, O III] _{? ?1661,1666}, N III] _?1750, C III] _{? ?1907,1909}, [O II] _{? ?3726,3729}, [Ne III] _?3869, [O III] _{? ?4959,5007}, and Ha, including a remarkable detection of the O III Bowen fluorescence line at rest frame ? = 3133 Å. We analyze in this paper the joint NIRSpec + MIRI spectral data set. Combining six optical strong-line diagnostics (namely R2, R3, R23, O32, Ne3O2, and Ne3O2Hd), we find extreme-ionization conditions, with log₁₀ ([O III] _{? ?4959,5007}/[O II] _{? ?3726,3729}) = 1.39 ± 0.19 and log₁₀ ([Ne III] _?3869/[O II] _{? ?3726,3729}) = 0.37 ± 0.18 in stark excess compared to typical values in the interstellar medium (ISM) at lower redshifts. These line properties are compatible either with an active galactic nucleus (AGN) or with a compact, very dense star-forming environment (S_SFR ? 10²–10³ M _? yr^-1 kpc^-2 and ? 10⁴–10⁵ M _? pc^-2), with a high ionization parameter (log₁₀(U) =-1.75 ± 0.16), a high ionizing photon production efficiency , and a low gas-phase metallicity (also confirmed by the direct, T _e method) ranging between 4% and 11% Z _?, indicating a rapid chemical enrichment of the ISM in the past few megayears. These properties also suggest that a substantial amount of ionizing photons (~10%) are leaking outside of GHZ2 and starting to reionize the surrounding intergalactic medium, possibly due to strong radiation-driven winds. The general lessons learned from GHZ2 are the following: (i) the UV-to-optical combined nebular indicators are broadly in agreement with UV-only or optical-only indicators; (ii) UV+optical diagnostics fail to discriminate between an AGN and star formation in a low-metallicity, high-density, and extreme-ionization environment; and (iii) comparing the nebular line ratios with local analogs may be approaching its limits at z ? 10, as this approach is potentially challenged by the unique conditions of star formation experienced by galaxies at these extreme redshifts.