Investigating the physical properties of dusty star-forming galaxies at z>=1.5 in the GOODS-South field using JWST

TL;DR

This study uses JWST simulations and data to assess how well the physical properties of dusty star-forming galaxy progenitors at high redshift can be constrained, demonstrating JWST's capabilities for detailed galaxy evolution studies.

Contribution

It introduces a physical model for proto-spheroidal galaxies and demonstrates JWST's effectiveness in accurately estimating their properties at z>=1.5, including low-mass systems.

Findings

JWST can estimate stellar masses within 0.1 dex for high-z proto-spheroids.

JWST will detect low-mass dusty star-forming galaxies during cosmic noon.

Simulated and observed DSFG populations show strong consistency.

Abstract

We investigated how well the physical properties of progenitors of present-day massive spheroidal galaxies (proto-spheroids) can be constrained by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) in the GOODS-South field, which benefits from extensive photometric and spectroscopic data, including those from the Hubble, Spitzer and Herschel. We adopted a physical model for the evolution of proto-spheroidal galaxies, which form the bulk of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at z>=1.5 and confirmed its consistency with recent mid-infrared high-z galaxy luminosity functions. Using the model and the JADES survey strategy, we simulated a sample of proto-spheroids over 87.5 arcmin^2, matching the JADES/GOODS-S survey area. Photometric redshifts estimated from simulated JWST photometry showed >=95% accuracy and were used in SED fitting with CIGALE. We demonstrated that JWST will provide reliable stellar mass estimates up to 0.1 dex for the majority of proto-spheroids at z>=1.5 and can detect low-mass systems during cosmic noon that were inaccessible in the pre-JWST era. Focusing on the active star-forming phase of the proto-spheroid evolution, we defined a sub-sample flux limited at 250 micron (DSFG sample) and derived SFR, dust luminosity and dust mass complementing the JWST photometry with that from Spitzer/MIPS and Herschel. We also constructed a JWST-selected DSFG catalog from ASTRODEEP data using NIRCam colour criteria and demonstrated strong consistency between the observed and simulated DSFG populations.