# Exploring the evolution of star formation and dwarf galaxy properties with JWST/MIRI serendipitous spectroscopic surveys

## TL;DR

This paper predicts how JWST/MIRI spectroscopic surveys will significantly advance our understanding of star formation and dwarf galaxy evolution by enabling detailed studies of faint, low-luminosity galaxies across a broad redshift range.

## Contribution

It provides the first predictions for serendipitous galaxy detections with JWST/MIRI, highlighting the potential to explore low-luminosity galaxies and constrain the evolution of the infrared luminosity function.

## Key findings

- Serendipitous detections will include tens of low-L galaxies per field.
- JWST/MIRI can explore the IR luminosity regime below 10^9 L_sun up to z~3.
- Predictions suggest sufficient data to constrain the low-L end of the IR luminosity function.

## Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope's Medium Resolution Spectrometer (MRS), will offer nearly 2 orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and >3X improvement in spectral resolution over our previous space-based mid-IR spectrometer, the Spitzer IRS. In this paper, we make predictions for spectroscopic pointed observations and serendipitous detections with the MRS. Specifically, pointed observations of Herschel sources require only a few minutes on source integration for detections of several star-forming and active galactic nucleus lines, out to z$=$3 and beyond. But the same data will also include tens of serendipitous 0$\lesssim$z$\lesssim$4 galaxies per field with infrared luminosities ranging $\sim10^6-10^{13}$L$_{\odot}$. In particular, for the first time and for free we will be able to explore the $L_{IR}<10^{9}L_{\odot}$ regime out to $z\sim3$. We estimate that with $\sim$100 such fields, statistics of these detections will be sufficient to constrain the evolution of the low-$L$ end of the infrared luminosity function, and hence the star formation rate function. The above conclusions hold for a wide range in potential low-$L$ end of the IR luminosity function, and accounting for the PAH deficit in low-$L$, low-metallicity galaxies.