Early Results from GLASS-JWST. VII. Evidence for Lensed, Gravitationally Bound Protoglobular Clusters at z=4 in the Hubble Frontier Field A2744*

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • E. Vanzella
  • M. Castellano
  • P. Bergamini
  • T. Treu
  • A. Mercurio
  • C. Scarlata
  • P. Rosati
  • C. Grillo
  • A. Acebron
  • G. B. Caminha
  • M. Nonino
  • T. Nanayakkara
  • G. Roberts-Borsani
  • M. Bradac
  • X. Wang
  • James B Strait
  • B. Vulcani
  • U. Mestric
  • M. Meneghetti
  • F. Calura
  • Alaina Henry
  • A. Zanella
  • M. Trenti
  • K. Boyett
  • T. Morishita
  • A. Calabro
  • K. Glazebrook
  • D. Marchesini
  • S. Birrer
  • L. Yang
  • T. Jones

We investigate the blue and optical rest-frame sizes (lambda similar or equal to 2300-4000 angstrom) of three compact star-forming regions in a galaxy at z = 4 strongly lensed (x30, x45, and x100) by the Hubble Frontier Field galaxy cluster A2744 using GLASS-ERS James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)/NIRISS imaging at 1.15 mu m, 1.50 mu m, and 2.0 mu m with a point-spread function less than or similar to 0.'' 1. In particular, the Balmer break is probed in detail for all multiply imaged sources of the system. With ages of a few tens of Myr, stellar masses in the range (0.7-4.0) x10(6) M (circle dot) and optical/ultraviolet effective radii spanning the interval 3 < R ( eff ) < 20 pc, such objects are currently the highest-redshift (spectroscopically confirmed) gravitationally bound young massive star clusters (YMCs), with stellar mass surface densities resembling those of local globular clusters. Optical (4000 angstrom, JWST-based) and ultraviolet (1600 angstrom, Hubble Space Telescope-based) sizes are fully compatible. The contribution to the ultraviolet underlying continuum emission (1600 angstrom) is similar to 30%, which decreases by a factor of 2 in the optical for two of the YMCs (similar to 4000 angstrom rest-frame), reflecting the young ages (

Original languageEnglish
Article number53
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume940
Issue number2
Number of pages8
ISSN2041-8205
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022

    Research areas

  • STAR-FORMING CLUMPS, GALAXIES, II., ABELL-2744, RESOLUTION, EVOLUTION

ID: 332119702