Census for the Rest-frame Optical and UV Morphologies of Galaxies at $z=4-10$: First Phase of Inside-Out Galaxy Formation

TL;DR

This study uses JWST imaging to analyze the morphologies of high-redshift galaxies at z=4-10, finding no evidence of inside-out formation and suggesting early star formation occurs centrally.

Contribution

First detailed surface brightness profiles of galaxies at z=4-10 using JWST, revealing no inside-out growth signatures and assessing morphology systematics.

Findings

Effective radii range from 0.03 to 1.7 kpc.

Effective radius ratio r_e,opt/r_e,UV is approximately 1.

No significant spatial offsets between optical and UV centers.

Abstract

We present the rest-frame optical and UV surface brightness (SB) profiles for $149$ galaxies with $M_{\rm opt}< -19.4$ mag at $z=4$-$10$ ($29$ of which are spectroscopically confirmed with JWST NIRSpec), securing high signal-to-noise ratios of $10$-$135$ with deep JWST NIRCam $1$-$5\mu$m images obtained by the CEERS survey. We derive morphologies of our high-$z$ galaxies, carefully evaluating the systematics of SB profile measurements with Monte Carlo simulations as well as the impacts of a) AGNs, b) multiple clumps including galaxy mergers, c) spatial resolution differences with previous HST studies, and d) strong emission lines, e.g., H$\alpha$ and [OIII], on optical morphologies with medium-band F410M images. Conducting S\'ersic profile fitting to our high-$z$ galaxy SBs with GALFIT, we obtain the effective radii of optical $r_{\rm e, opt}$ and UV $r_{\rm e, UV}$ wavelengths ranging $r_{\rm e, opt}=0.05$-$1.6$ kpc and $r_{\rm e, UV}=0.03$-$1.7$ kpc that are consistent with previous results within large scatters in the size luminosity relations. However, we find the effective radius ratio, $r_{\rm e, opt}/r_{\rm e, UV}$, is almost unity, $1.01^{+0.35}_{-0.22}$, over $z=4$-$10$ with no signatures of past inside-out star formation such found at $z\sim 0$-$2$. There are no spatial offsets exceeding $3\sigma$ between the optical and UV morphology centers in case of no mergers, indicative of major star-forming activity only found near a mass center of galaxies at $z\gtrsim 4$ probably experiencing the first phase of inside-out galaxy formation.