James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post
Harvard ADS: JWST/NIRSpec WIDE survey: a z=4.6 low-mass star-forming galaxy hosting a jet-driven shock with low ionisation and solar metallicity
Paper abstract: We present NIRSpec/MSA observations from the JWST large-area survey WIDE, targeting the rest-frame UV-optical spectrum of Ulema, a radio-AGN host at redshift z = 4.6348. The low-resolution prism spectrum displays high equivalent width nebular emission, with remarkably high ratios of low-ionisation species of oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur, relative to hydrogen; auroral O+ emission is clearly detected, possibly also C+. From the high-resolution grating spectrum, we measure a gas velocity dispersion of s ~ 400 km s-1, broad enough to rule out star-forming gas in equilibrium in the gravitational potential of the galaxy. Diagnostics based on emission-line ratios suggest that the nebular emission is due to a shock which ran out of pre-shock gas. To infer the physical properties of the system, we model simultaneously the galaxy spectral energy distribution (SED) and shock-driven line emission under a Bayesian framework. We find a relatively low-mass, star-forming system (M? = 1.4 × 1010 M?, SFR = 70 M? yr-1), where shock-driven emission contributes 50 per cent to the total Hß luminosity. The nebular metallicity is near solar - three times higher than that predicted by the mass-metallicity relation at z = 4.6, possibly related to fast-paced chemical evolution near the galaxy nucleus. We find no evidence for a recent decline in the SFR of the galaxy, meaning that, already at this early epoch, fast radio-mode AGN feedback was poorly coupled with the bulk of the star-forming gas; therefore, most of the feedback energy must end up in the galaxy halo, setting the stage for future quenching.
