Validating z > 7.5 Lyman Break Galaxy candidates in the COSMOS field with JWST/PASSAGE

TL;DR

This study spectroscopically confirms one luminous galaxy at z~8 in the COSMOS field using JWST data, indicating a higher surface density than previous surveys and hinting at an overdensity at that epoch.

Contribution

First spectroscopic confirmation of a z~8 galaxy in the COSMOS field with JWST, revealing a potentially higher galaxy density than expected.

Findings

Confirmed one galaxy at z=7.962 with JWST/PASSAGE.

Surface density of z~8 galaxies is about 10 times higher than previous estimates.

Suggests possible overdensity of galaxies at z~8 in COSMOS field.

Abstract

We analyze spectroscopy from one NIRISS pointing in the JWST-PASSAGE program for seven candidate $z \gtrsim 7.5$ photometrically-selected COSMOS-Web sources. We spectroscopically confirm one out of seven sources as a Lyman break galaxy (LBG) at $z=7.962^{+0.003}_{-0.006}$, with $m_{F150W} = 25.9$ (AB). The remaining sources are too faint in the continuum (i.e., $m_{F150W} \gtrsim 26$ AB) to provide a redshift measurement from the Lyman break, and do not show emission lines in their spectra. Although this study contains only one spectroscopically confirmed source, the confirmation of a luminous $z \sim 8$ galaxy within this $\sim4.8$ arcmin$^2$ field implies a surface density of $\sim 0.21^{+0.59}_{-0.17}$ arcmin$^{-2}$, $\approx 10\times$ higher than inferred from wide-area photometric surveys, suggesting a potential overdensity at $z\sim8$ in the COSMOS field.