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Abdurro'uf

Publications and source records attributed to Abdurro'uf.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. II. Physical Properties of $z=7-14$ Galaxies

We present photometric properties of 161 galaxy candidates at $z=7-14$ selected from the second data release (DR2) of BEACON, a JWST Cycle 2 pure-parallel NIRCam imaging program. Carefully selected from 36 independent pointings (corresponding to $\sim350$\,arcmin$^2$ sky coverage), and hence with reduced cosmic variance, our galaxy candidates provide an unbiased sample for investigating galaxy properties over a wide range of environments. We measure the physical properties, including UV continuum slope ($β_{\rm UV}$), stellar mass ($M_*$), star formation rate (SFR), and sizes. Our highest redshift galaxy candidate at $z=13.71\pm0.15$ has a remarkably bright UV luminosity of $M_{\rm UV}=-21.19\pm0.08$, making it the brightest galaxy at $z>12$ if spectroscopically confirmed. With an extremely blue UV slope, compact morphology, and high star formation rate surface density ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$), this candidate may have extremely low metallicity, high ionizing photon escape fraction, or contributions from an AGN. Among our multiple independent sightlines, we identify three fields of galaxy number overdensity with $>3σ$ significance. The properties of galaxies in various environments do not exhibit significant differences, implying either that accelerated galaxy evolution in overdense regions is not yet widespread at $z>7$, or that the current constraints are limited by sample size. Our simulations indicate that increasing the sample by an order of magnitude would allow such environmental trends to be robustly confirmed or ruled out, underscoring the importance of future pure-parallel observations.

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HELM's deep: Highly Extincted Low-Mass galaxies seen by JWST

The dust content of star-forming galaxies is generally positively correlated with their stellar mass. However, some recent JWST studies have shown the existence of a population of dwarf galaxies with an unexpectedly large dust attenuation. Using the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS) data, we identified a sample of 1361 highly extincted low-mass (HELM) galaxies, defined as dwarf galaxies ($M_*<10^{8.5}$) with Av>1mag or more massive galaxies with an exceptionally high dust attenuation given their stellar mass (i.e., $Av>1.6log_{10}(M_*/Mo)-12.6$). The selection is performed using the multiparameter distribution obtained through a comprehensive spectral energy distribution fitting analysis, based on optical to near-infrared data. After excluding possible contaminants, like brown dwarfs, little red dots, high-z (z>8.5) and ultra-high-z (z>15) galaxies, the sample mainly includes sources at z<1, with a tail extending up to z=7.2. The sample has a median stellar mass of $10^7$ Mo and a median dust attenuation of Av=2mag. We analysed the morphology, environment and star-formation rate of these sources to investigate the reason of their large dust attenuation. In particular, HELM sources have sizes (effective radii, Re) similar to non-dusty dwarf galaxies and no correlation is visible between the axis ratios (b/a) and the dust attenuation. This findings indicate that it is unlikely that the large dust attenuation is due to projection effects, but a prolate or a disk-on oblate geometry are still possible, at least for a subsample of the sources. We have found that the distribution of HELM sources is slightly skewed toward more clustered environments than non-dusty dwarfs and tend to be slightly less star forming. This finding, if confirmed by spectroscopic follow-up, indicates that HELM sources could be going through some environmental processes, such as galaxy interactions.

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High-Redshift Galaxy Candidates at z > 6 as Revealed by JWST Observations of MACS0647

We present a catalog of 57 high-redshift $z>6$ galaxy candidates, including 14 spectroscopic confirmations ($z = 6.10$ -- 9.25), 2 Little Red Dots ($z = 4.77$, 5.81), and 2 interlopers ($z = 3.23$, 3.72), based on \JWST\ NIRCam imaging (7 filters), NIRSpec spectroscopy (PRISM and G395H), and archival \HST\ imaging (17 filters) of the strong lensing galaxy cluster MACS0647. Our highest redshift confirmation ($z = 9.25$) is an Extremely Blue Galaxy (presented in~\citealt{Yanagisawa2024}), and here we identify a spectral turnover likely due to damped Lyman-$α$. We identify an overdensity of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts $z = 6.1$, confirming the $z \sim 6$ overdensity identified in \HST\ images. In one of these galaxies, our high-resolution G395H spectroscopy reveals two spatially resolved components with a velocity difference of $\sim$90 km/s; if these components are gravitationally bound, this would imply a dynamical mass on the order of $\sim 10^8\ M_\odot$ given their projected separation. We present spectral line fluxes, widths, and derived physical properties, including stellar masses ($10^8 - 10^9 \ \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$) and metallicities ($10\% - 40\% \ \mathrm{Z}_{\odot}$) for our spectroscopic sample. We note half of our NIRSpec data was obtained with standard 3-slitlet nods and half was obtained with single slitlets yielding similar results, demonstrating the power to observe more sources on a densely packed NIRSpec MSA.

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The z = 9.625 Cosmic Gems Galaxy was a "Compact Blue Monster" Propelled by Massive Star Clusters

The recent discovery of five massive stellar clusters at z=9.625 in the Cosmic Gems has raised the question about the formation mechanism of star clusters in the first half Gyr after the Big-Bang. We infer the total stellar mass in clusters by normalizing and integrating the stellar cluster mass function (SCMF, dn(M)/dM ~ (n$_0$) $M^β$), assuming three different slopes $β$ = -1.5, -2.0 and -2.5 and different lower-mass limits between $10^2$ and $10^5$ Msun. The total integrated cluster stellar mass is compared to the stellar mass inferred from the counter-image of the Cosmic Gems, which provides the best, modestly magnified ($μ$ = 1.84$\pm$0.05) representation of the entire galaxy. The delensed stellar mass of the Cosmic Gems galaxy is estimated as 3.5$_{-1.8}^{+3.3}$ x$10^7$ Msun, with an effective radius of Reff = 103$_{-15}^{+13}$ parsec and a stellar surface mass density of $Σ$mass = 520$_{-225}^{+340}$ Msun pc$^{-2}$. Accounting for normalization uncertainties - including different lensing magnification scenarios for the arc - a modified SCMF, combined with a significantly high star cluster formation efficiency (approaching 100%), appears to be a necessary condition to explain the relatively short formation timescale of both the star clusters and the counter-image, without exceeding the galaxy's stellar mass. By extrapolating the physical properties at the peak of the burst we find that in its recent past (<~ 30 Myr) the Cosmic Gems galaxy has likely experienced a specific star formation rate (sSFR) exceeding 25 Gyr$^{-1}$ and luminosity approaching the ``blue monster'' regime (M$_{UV}$ < -20). Our study provides insights into the extreme clustered nature of star formation in early galaxies and shed light into the formation of bound star clusters that might survive to z = 0 as globular clusters, older than 13 Gyr.

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Little red dot variability over a century reveals black hole envelope via a giant Einstein cross

"Little red dots" (LRDs) represent a new population of astronomical objects uncovered by JWST whose nature remains debated. Although many LRDs are suspected as active galactic nuclei (AGN), they show little variability on days-years timescales. We report the discovery of two gravitationally lensed LRDs at redshift $\sim$4.3 behind the cluster RXCJ2211-0350, one of which (RX1) is quadruply imaged with time delays spanning $\sim$130 years. RX1 exhibits intrinsic color and brightness variations of up to 0.7 magnitude among its images. These changes are consistent with blackbody-temperature variations of a photosphere, indicating long-term variability analogous to Cepheid-like pulsations but in a far more extended ($R \sim 2000$ AU) and massive ($M \gtrsim 10^6 \, M_{\odot}$) systems. These results suggest LRDs as a distinct class of AGN with stellar-like envelopes.

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VENUS: When Red meets Blue -- A multiply imaged Little Red Dot with an apparent blue companion behind the galaxy cluster Abell 383

We report the discovery of a doubly-imaged Little Red Dot (LRD) candidate behind the galaxy cluster Abell 383, which we dub A383-LRD1. Initially classified as a dropout galaxy in HST imaging with several ground-based emission line detections placing it at $z_{\mathrm{spec}}=6.027$, new JWST/NIRCam observations taken as part of the cycle 4 VENUS survey now reveal that the source consists of two underlying components: A red point-source with a V-shaped SED consistent with LRD selection criteria, and a nearby ($\sim 380$ pc) compact blue companion which was the main contributor to the previous rest-frame UV detections. Based on lensing symmetry and its SED, the LRD appears to lie at a similar redshift as well. The magnification of the two images of A383-LRD1 is $μ_{\mathrm{A}}=16.2\pm1.2$ and $μ_\mathrm{B}=9.0\pm0.6$, respectively, and the predicted time delay between them is $Δt_{\mathrm{grav}}=5.20\pm0.14$ yr ($\sim0.7$ yr in the rest-frame). After correcting for the lensing magnification, we derive an absolute magnitude of $M_{\mathrm{UV,LRD}}=-16.8\pm 0.3$ for the LRD, and $M_{\mathrm{UV,BC}}=-18.2\pm 0.2$ for the blue companion. We perform SED fits to both components, revealing the LRD to be best fitted with a black hole star (BH*) model and a substantial host galaxy, and the blue companion with an extremely young, emission-line dominated star-forming nebula. A383-LRD1 represents the second known multiply-imaged LRD detected to date, following A2744-QSO1, and to our knowledge, the first LRD system with a confirmed detection of [C $_{II}$]$\lambda158 \ μ$m emission from ALMA observations. Thanks to lensing magnification, this system opens a unique door to study the relation between a LRD, its host galaxy, and its environment, and represents a prime candidate for deep JWST spectroscopy and high-resolution ALMA follow-up observations.

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Euclid preparation: LXXXI. The impact of nonparametric star formation histories on spatially resolved galaxy property estimation using synthetic Euclid images

We analyzed the spatially resolved and global star formation histories (SFHs) for a sample of 25 TNG50-SKIRT Atlas galaxies to assess the feasibility of reconstructing accurate SFHs from Euclid-like data. This study provides a proof of concept for extracting the spatially resolved SFHs of local galaxies with Euclid, highlighting the strengths and limitations of SFH modeling in the context of next-generation galaxy surveys. We used the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code Prospector to model both spatially resolved and global SFHs using parametric and nonparametric configurations. The input consisted of mock ultraviolet--near-infrared photometry derived from the TNG50 cosmological simulation and processed with the radiative transfer code SKIRT. We show that nonparametric SFHs provide a more effective approach to mitigating the outshining effect by recent star formation, offering improved accuracy in the determination of galaxy stellar properties. Also, we find that the nonparametric SFH model at resolved scales closely recovers the stellar mass formation times (within 0.1~dex) and the ground truth values from TNG50, with an absolute average bias of $0.03$~dex in stellar mass and $0.01$~dex in both specific star formation rate and mass-weighted age. In contrast, larger offsets are estimated for all stellar properties and formation times when using a simple $τ$-model SFH, at both resolved and global scales, highlighting its limitations. These results emphasize the critical role of nonparametric SFHs in both global and spatially resolved analyses, as they better capture the complex evolutionary pathways of galaxies and avoid the biases inherent in simple parametric models.

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JWST spectroscopic confirmation of the Cosmic Gems arc at z=9.625 -- Insights into the small scale structure of a post-burst system

We present JWST/NIRSpec integral field spectroscopy of the Cosmic Gems arc, strongly magnified by the galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615$-$5746. Six-hour integration using NIRSpec prism spectroscopy (resolution $\rm R\simeq 30-300$), covering the spectral range $0.8-5.3~μm$, reveals a pronounced $\rm Lyα$-continuum break at $λ\simeq 1.3~μm$, as well as weak optical $\rm Hβ$ and $\rm [OIII]\lambda4959$ emission lines at $z=9.625\pm0.002$, located in the reddest part of the spectrum ($λ> 5.1~μm$). No additional ultraviolet or optical emission lines are reliably detected. A weak Balmer break is measured alongside a very blue ultraviolet slope ($β\leq-2.5$, $\rm F_λ \sim λ^β$). Spectral fitting with $\tt Bagpipes$ suggests that the Cosmic Gems galaxy is in a post-starburst phase, making it the highest-redshift system currently observed in a mini-quenched state. Spatially resolved spectroscopy at tens of parsecs shows relatively uniform features across subcomponents of the arc. These findings align well with the physical properties previously derived from JWST/NIRCam photometry of the stellar clusters, now corroborated by spectroscopic evidence. In particular, five observed star clusters exhibit ages of $\rm 7-30~Myr$. An updated lens model constrains the intrinsic sizes and masses of these clusters, confirming they are extremely compact and denser than typical star clusters in local star-forming galaxies. Additionally, four compact stellar systems consistent with star clusters ($\lesssim10$ pc) are identified along the extended tail of the arc. A sub-parsec line-emitting HII region straddling the critical line, lacking a NIRCam counterpart, is also serendipitously detected.

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Unveiling the Cosmic Gems Arc at $z\sim10$ with JWST NIRCam

We present recent JWST NIRCam imaging observations of SPT0615-JD (also known as the Cosmic Gems Arc), lensed by the galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746. The 5 arcsec long arc is the most highly magnified $z>10$ galaxy known. It straddles the lensing critical curve and reveals five star clusters with radii of $\sim 1$ pc or less. We measure the full arc to have F200W 24.5 AB mag, consisting of two mirror images, each 25.3 AB mag with a median magnification of $μ\sim 60^{+17}_{-8}$ (delensed 29.7 AB mag, $M_{UV} = -17.8$). The galaxy has an extremely strong Lyman break F115W$-$F200W $>3.2$ mag ($2σ$ lower limit), is undetected in all bluer filters ($< 2σ$), and has a very blue continuum slope redward of the break ($β= -2.7 \pm 0.1$). This results in a photometric redshift $z_{phot} = 10.2 \pm 0.2$ (95% confidence) with no significant likelihood below $z<9.8$. Based on spectral energy distribution fitting to the total photometry, we estimate an intrinsic stellar mass of $M_{*} \sim 2.4 - 5.6 \times 10^{7} M_{\odot}$, young mass-weighted age of $\sim 21 - 79$ Myr, low dust content ($A_V < 0.15$), and a low metallicity of $\lesssim 1\%~Z_{\odot}$. We identify a fainter third counterimage candidate within 2.2 arcsec of the predicted position, lensed to AB mag 28.4 and magnified by $μ\sim 2$, suggesting the fold arc may only show $\sim 60$% of the galaxy. SPT0615-JD is a unique laboratory to study star clusters observed within a galaxy just 460 Myr after the Big Bang.

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First direct carbon abundance measured at $z>10$ in the lensed galaxy MACS0647$-$JD

Investigating the metal enrichment in the early universe helps us constrain theories about the first stars and study the ages of galaxies. The lensed galaxy MACS0647$-$JD at $z=10.17$ is the brightest galaxy known at $z > 10$. Previous work analyzing JWST NIRSpec and MIRI data yielded a direct metallicity $\rm{12+log(O/H)}=7.79\pm0.09$ ($\sim$ 0.13 $Z_\odot$) and electron density $\rm{log}(n_e / \rm{cm^{-3}}) = 2.9 \pm 0.5$, the most distant such measurements to date. Here we estimate the direct C/O abundance for the first time at $z > 10$, finding a sub-solar ${\rm log(C/O)}=-0.44^{+0.06}_{-0.07}$. This is higher than other $z>6$ galaxies with direct C/O measurements, likely due to higher metallicity. It is also slightly higher than galaxies in the local universe with similar metallicity. This may suggest a very efficient and rapid burst of star formation, a low effective oxygen abundance yield, or the presence of unusual stellar populations including supermassive stars. Alternatively, the strong CIII]${\rm λλ}$1907,1909 emission ($14\pm 3\,{Å}$ rest-frame EW) may originate from just one of the two component star clusters JDB ($r \sim 20$ pc). Future NIRSpec IFU spectroscopic observations of MACS0647$-$JD will be promising for disentangling C/O in the two components to constrain the chemistry of individual star clusters just 460 Myr after the Big Bang.

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Stellar Mass Assembly History of Massive Quiescent Galaxies since $z\sim4$: Insights from Spatially Resolved SED Fitting with JWST Data

Massive quiescent galaxies at high redshift show significantly more compact morphology than their local counterparts. To examine their internal structure across a wide redshift range and investigate potential redshift dependence, we performed spatially resolved SED fitting using pixedfit software on massive $(\log(M_*/M_\odot)\sim11)$ quiescent galaxies at $0 4$ kpc), while the central regions ($r \sim 1$ kpc) remain largely unchanged, with stellar mass surface density similar to local quiescent galaxies. The estimated star formation rates are too low to explain the stellar mass growth, indicating an additional stellar mass accumulation process, such as mergers, is necessary. We parameterize the size-mass relation of the most massive galaxies in our sample as $\log(R_{e,mass}) \propto α\log(M_*)$, and find $α= 2.67^{+1.14}_{-1.17}$ for $z\lessapprox2$, consistent with growth dominated by minor mergers, and $α= 0.91^{+0.20}_{-0.16}$ for $z\gtrapprox2$, consistent with growth dominated by major mergers. These results indicate that massive quiescent galaxies originate from compact quenched systems and grow through combinations of minor and major mergers.

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Euclid preparation. Spatially resolved stellar populations of local galaxies with Euclid: a proof of concept using synthetic images with the TNG50 simulation

The European Space Agency's Euclid mission will observe approximately 14,000 $\rm{deg}^{2}$ of the extragalactic sky and deliver high-quality imaging for many galaxies. The depth and high spatial resolution of the data will enable a detailed analysis of stellar population properties of local galaxies. In this study, we test our pipeline for spatially resolved SED fitting using synthetic images of Euclid, LSST, and GALEX generated from the TNG50 simulation. We apply our pipeline to 25 local simulated galaxies to recover their resolved stellar population properties. We produce 3 types of data cubes: GALEX + LSST + Euclid, LSST + Euclid, and Euclid-only. We perform the SED fitting tests with two SPS models in a Bayesian framework. Because the age, metallicity, and dust attenuation estimates are biased when applying only classical formulations of flat priors, we examine the effects of additional priors in the forms of mass-age-$Z$ relations, constructed using a combination of empirical and simulated data. Stellar-mass surface densities can be recovered well using any of the 3 data cubes, regardless of the SPS model and prior variations. The new priors then significantly improve the measurements of mass-weighted age and $Z$ compared to results obtained without priors, but they may play an excessive role compared to the data in determining the outcome when no UV data is available. The spatially resolved SED fitting method is powerful for mapping the stellar populations of galaxies with the current abundance of high-quality imaging data. Our study re-emphasizes the gain added by including multiwavelength data from ancillary surveys and the roles of priors in Bayesian SED fitting. With the Euclid data alone, we will be able to generate complete and deep stellar mass maps of galaxies in the local Universe, thus exploiting the telescope's wide field, NIR sensitivity, and high spatial resolution.

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No Evidence of a Dichotomy in the Elliptical Galaxy Population

The advent of large integral field spectroscopic surveys has found that elliptical galaxies (EGs) can be classified into two classes: the fast rotators (whose kinematics are dominated by rotation) and the slow rotators (which exhibit slow or no rotation pattern). It is often suggested that while the slow rotators typically have boxy isophotal shapes, have a high $α$-to-iron abundance ratio, and are quite massive, the fast rotators often exhibit the opposite properties (that is, having disky isophotes, lower $α$-to-iron ratio, and of typical masses). Whether the EGs consist of two distinct populations (i.e., a dichotomy exists), remains an unsolved issue. To examine the existence of the dichotomy, we used a sample of 1,895 EGs from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey, and measured robustly the stellar kinematics, isophotal shapes, and [Mg/Fe] ratio. We confirmed the previous finding that the bulk of the EGs are disky (65%) and fast rotators (67%), but found no evidence supporting a dichotomy, based on a principal component analysis. The different classes (boxy/disky and slow/fast rotators) of EGs occupy slightly different loci in the principal component space. This may explain the observed trends that led to the premature support of a dichotomy based on small samples of galaxies.

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Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1). A first view of the star-forming main sequence in the Euclid Deep Fields

The star-forming main sequence (SFMS) is a tight relation observed between stellar masses and star formation rates (SFR) in a population of galaxies. This relation is observed at different redshifts, in various morphological, and environmental domains, and is key to understanding the underlying relations between a galaxy budget of cold gas and its stellar content. Euclid Quick Data Release 1 (Q1) gives us the opportunity to investigate this fundamental relation in galaxy formation and evolution. We complement the Euclid release with public IRAC observations of the Euclid Deep Fields, improving the quality of recovered photometric redshifts, stellar masses, and SFRs, as is shown both with simulations and a comparison with available spectroscopic redshifts. From Q1 data alone, we recover more than $\sim 30\,\mathrm{k}$ galaxies with $\log_{10} (M_\ast/M_\odot) > 11$, giving a precise constraint of the SFMS at the high-mass end. We investigated the SFMS, in a redshift interval between $0.2$ and $3.0$, comparing our results with the existing literature and fitting them with a parameterisation taking into account the presence of a bending of the relation at the high-mass end, depending on the bending mass, $M_0$. We find good agreement with previous results in terms of $M_0$ values, and an increasing trend for the relation scatter at higher stellar masses. We also investigate the distribution of physical (e.g. dust absorption, $A_V$, and formation age) and morphological properties (e.g., Sérsic index and radius) in the SFR--stellar mass plane, and their relation with the SFMS. These results highlight the potential of Euclid in studying the fundamental scaling relations that regulate galaxy formation and evolution in anticipation of the forthcoming Data Release 1.

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Euclid preparation. LXVIII. Extracting physical parameters from galaxies with machine learning

The Euclid mission is generating a vast amount of imaging data in four broadband filters at high angular resolution. This will allow the detailed study of mass, metallicity, and stellar populations across galaxies, which will constrain their formation and evolutionary pathways. Transforming the Euclid imaging for large samples of galaxies into maps of physical parameters in an efficient and reliable manner is an outstanding challenge. We investigate the power and reliability of machine learning techniques to extract the distribution of physical parameters within well-resolved galaxies. We focus on estimating stellar mass surface density, mass-averaged stellar metallicity and age. We generate noise-free, synthetic high-resolution imaging data in the Euclid photometric bands for a set of 1154 galaxies from the TNG50 cosmological simulation. The images are generated with the SKIRT radiative transfer code, taking into account the complex 3D distribution of stellar populations and interstellar dust attenuation. We use a machine learning framework to map the idealised mock observational data to the physical parameters on a pixel-by-pixel basis. We find that stellar mass surface density can be accurately recovered with a $\leq 0.130 {\rm \,dex}$ scatter. Conversely, stellar metallicity and age estimates are, as expected, less robust, but still contain significant information which originates from underlying correlations at a sub-kpc scale between stellar mass surface density and stellar population properties.

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Implication of a galaxy-scale negative feedback by one of the most powerful multi-phase outflows in a hyper-luminous infrared galaxy at the intermediate redshift

Powerful, galactic outflows driven by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are commonly considered as a main mechanism to regulate star formation in massive galaxies. Ultra- and hyper-luminous IR galaxies (U/HyLIRGs) are thought to represent a transition phase of galaxies from a rapidly growing period to a quiescent status as gas swept out by outflows, providing a laboratory to investigate outflows and their feedback effects on the hosts. In this paper we report recent Gemini and ALMA observations of a HyLIRG, J1126 at $z=0.46842$, which has been identified with a puzzling co-existence of a fast ionized outflow ($>2000$ km s$^{-1}$) and an intense starburst (star formation rate of 800 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$). The Gemini observation shows the fast ionized outflow is extended to several kpc with a mass-loss rate of 180 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. A massive molecular outflow with a high mass-loss rate (2500 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$) is revealed by ALMA. The multi-phase outflows show large factors of momentum boost and loading of kinetic power, indicating a driving by thermal pressure of a nuclear hot wind and/or radiation pressure of a highly obscured AGN. In addition to ejection of kinetic energy, it is also found that the powerful outflow can induce an ionizing shock in the galaxy disk and enhance the excitation and dissociation of molecular gas. The powerful outflow probably results in an instantaneous negative feedback and shows potential to regulate the host growth in a long term.

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Euclid preparation. LVIII. Detecting globular clusters in the Euclid survey

Extragalactic globular clusters (EGCs) are an abundant and powerful tracer of galaxy dynamics and formation, and their own formation and evolution is also a matter of extensive debate. The compact nature of globular clusters means that they are hard to spatially resolve and thus study outside the Local Group. In this work we have examined how well EGCs will be detectable in images from the Euclid telescope, using both simulated pre-launch images and the first early-release observations of the Fornax galaxy cluster. The Euclid Wide Survey will provide high-spatial resolution VIS imaging in the broad IE band as well as near-infrared photometry (YE, JE, and HE). We estimate that the galaxies within 100 Mpc in the footprint of the Euclid survey host around 830 000 EGCs of which about 350 000 are within the survey's detection limits. For about half of these EGCs, three infrared colours will be available as well. For any galaxy within 50Mpc the brighter half of its GC luminosity function will be detectable by the Euclid Wide Survey. The detectability of EGCs is mainly driven by the residual surface brightness of their host galaxy. We find that an automated machine-learning EGC-classification method based on real Euclid data of the Fornax galaxy cluster provides an efficient method to generate high purity and high completeness GC candidate catalogues. We confirm that EGCs are spatially resolved compared to pure point sources in VIS images of Fornax. Our analysis of both simulated and first on-sky data show that Euclid will increase the number of GCs accessible with high-resolution imaging substantially compared to previous surveys, and will permit the study of GCs in the outskirts of their hosts. Euclid is unique in enabling systematic studies of EGCs in a spatially unbiased and homogeneous manner and is primed to improve our understanding of many understudied aspects of GC astrophysics.

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BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. I. Survey Design and Initial Results

We introduce the Bias-free Extragalactic Analysis for Cosmic Origins with NIRCam (BEACON) survey, a JWST Cycle2 program allocated up to 600 pure-parallel hours of observations. BEACON explores high-latitude areas of the sky with JWST/NIRCam over $\sim100$ independent sightlines, totaling $\sim0.3$deg$^2$, reaching a median F444W depth of $\approx28.2$AB mag (5$σ$). Based on existing JWST observations in legacy fields, we estimate that BEACON will photometrically identify 25--150 galaxies at $z>10$ and 500--1000 at $z\sim7$--10 uniquely enabled by an efficient multiple filter configuration spanning $0.9$--5.0$μ$m. The expected sample size of $z>10$ galaxies will allow us to obtain robust number density estimates and to discriminate between different models of early star formation. In this paper, we present an overview of the survey design and initial results using the first 19 fields. We present 129 galaxy candidates at $z>7$ identified in those fields, including 11 galaxies at $z>10$ and several UV-luminous ($M_{\rm UV}<-21$mag) galaxies at $z\sim8$. The number densities of $z<13$ galaxies inferred from the initial fields are overall consistent with those in the literature. Despite reaching a considerably large volume ($\sim10^5$Mpc$^3$), however, we find no galaxy candidates at $z>13$, providing us with a complimentary insight into early galaxy evolution with minimal cosmic variance. We publish imaging and catalog data products for these initial fields. Upon survey completion, all BEACON data will be coherently processed and distributed to the community along with catalogs for redshift and other physical quantities.

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