Burstiness in low stellar-mass Ha emitters at z~2 and z~4-6 from JWST medium band photometry in GOODS-S

TL;DR

This study uses JWST NIRCam medium-band photometry to analyze low-mass Ha emitter galaxies at z~2 and z~4-6, revealing their bursty star formation behaviors and how these relate to stellar mass and redshift.

Contribution

It presents a robust photometric method to derive Ha properties and star formation rates in faint high-redshift galaxies, highlighting the prevalence of bursty star formation in low-mass systems.

Findings

80% of low-mass galaxies show bursty star formation.

SFR(Ha)/SFR(UV) ratio indicates strong bursts in low-mass galaxies.

Star formation activity increases steeply with redshift.

Abstract

We analyze a sample of 4500 photometrically-selected Ha emitter galaxies at redshifts z~2 and z~4-6 selected from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) medium-band images in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey South (GOODS-S). The bulk (80%) of the galaxies in our sample have stellar masses lower than 10^8 Msun, with a median stellar mass of ~10^7.3 Msun. We derive Ha rest-frame equivalent widths ( EW0(Ha) ), line fluxes, and star formation rates using a robust photometric excess technique tested against spectroscopic measurements, being sensitive to EW0(Ha) > 75 A. Both EW0(Ha) and sSFR(Ha) anti-correlate with stellar mass, and at fixed stellar mass, show a steep increasing trend with redshift sSFR(Ha) ~ (1+z)^2.55. By comparing the Ha and rest-frame UV-derived SFRs, we probe the star formation histories (SFHs) of our galaxies in the past 100 Myr. The fraction of low-mass galaxies (M < 10^8 Msun) with signs of bursty star formation from their SFR(Ha)/SFR(UV) is ~ 50 %. It quickly drops to ~ 25 % for M > 10^8 Msun. This is consistent with the results from sSFR(Ha), showing 80% and 17%, respectively. SFR(Ha)/SFR(UV) is a stricter criterion than those based on the galaxy sSFR(Ha), as it only identifies the strongest starbursts, the ones at the initial phases of a bursty star-formation episode.