Sizes of Lensed Lower-luminosity z=4-8 Galaxies from the Hubble Frontier Field Program

TL;DR

This study measures the sizes of faint, high-redshift galaxies behind galaxy clusters to refine the size-luminosity relation, revealing smaller sizes for low-luminosity galaxies and improving understanding of galaxy evolution at early cosmic times.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed size-luminosity relation for z~4-8 galaxies using lensing models, showing a steeper relation for faint galaxies and addressing measurement uncertainties.

Findings

Galaxy sizes range from <50 pc to >500 pc.

Size scales with luminosity as L^{0.54} at z~4 and L^{0.40} at z~6-8.

Faint galaxies are smaller than extrapolated from high-luminosity relations.

Abstract

We constrain the rest-UV size-luminosity relation for star-forming galaxies at z~4 and z~6, 7, and 8 identified behind clusters from the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) program. The size-luminosity relation is key to deriving accurate luminosity functions (LF) for faint galaxies. Making use of the latest lensing models and full data set for these clusters, lensing-corrected sizes and luminosities are derived for 68 z~4, 184 z~6, 93 z~7, and 53 z~8 galaxies. We show that size measurements can be reliably measured up to linear magnifications of 30x, where the lensing models are well calibrated. The sizes we measure span a >1-dex range, from <50 pc to >~500 pc. Uncertainties are based on both the formal fit errors and systematic differences between the public lensing models. These uncertainties range from ~20 pc for the smallest sources to 50 pc for the largest. Using a forward-modeling procedure to model the impact of incompleteness and magnification uncertainties, we characterize the size-luminosity relation at both z~4 and z~6-8. We find that the source sizes of star-forming galaxies at z~4 and z~6-8 scale with luminosity L as L^{0.54\pm0.08} and L^{0.40+/-0.04}, respectively, such that lower luminosity (>~-18 mag) galaxies are smaller than expected from extrapolating the size-luminosity relation at high luminosities (<~-18 mag). The new evidence for a steeper size-luminosity relation (3 sigma) adds to earlier evidence for small sizes based on the prevalence of highly magnified galaxies in high shear regions, theoretical arguments against upturns in the LFs, and other independent determinations of the size-luminosity relation from the HFF clusters.