Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
GLIMPSE: An Ultrafaint ≃105 M⊙ Pop III Galaxy Candidate and First Constraints on the Pop III UV Luminosity Function at z ≃ 6-7
Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 362025 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 989, no 1, article id 46Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Detecting the first generation of stars, Population III (Pop III), has been a long-standing goal in astrophysics, yet they remain elusive even in the JWST era. Here we present a novel NIRCam-based selection method for Pop III galaxies, and carefully validate it through completeness and contamination simulations. We systematically search similar or equal to 500 arcmin(2) across JWST legacy fields for Pop III candidates, including GLIMPSE, which, assisted by gravitational lensing, has produced JWST's deepest NIRCam imaging thus far. We discover one promising Pop III galaxy candidate (GLIMPSE-16043) at z = 6.50(-0.24 )(+0.03) , a moderately lensed galaxy ( mu = 2.9(-0.2)(+0.1) ) with an intrinsic UV magnitude of = M-UV = -15.89 (+0.12)(-0.14) . It exhibits key Pop III features: strong H alpha emission (rest-frame EW 2810 +/- 550 & Aring;); a Balmer jump; no dust (UV slope beta = -2.34 +/- 0.36); and undetectable metal lines (e.g., [O III]; [O III]/H beta < 0.44), implying a gas-phase metallicity of Z(gas)/Z(circle dot) < 0.5%. These properties indicate the presence of a nascent, metal-deficient young stellar population (<5 Myr) with a stellar mass of similar or equal to 10(5) M-circle dot. Intriguingly, this source deviates significantly from the extrapolated UV-metallicity relation derived from recent JWST observations at z = 4-10, consistent with UV enhancement by a top-heavy Pop III initial mass function or the presence of an extremely metal-poor active galactic nucleus. We also derive the first observational constraints on the Pop III UV luminosity function at z similar or equal to 6-7. The volume density of GLIMPSE-16043 (approximate to 10(-4) cMpc(-3) ) is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions, independently reinforcing its plausibility. This study demonstrates the power of our novel NIRCam method to finally reveal distant galaxies even more pristine than the Milky Way's most metal-poor satellites, thereby promising to bring us closer to the first generation of stars than we have ever been before

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. Vol. 989, no 1, article id 46
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-247787DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ade9a1ISI: 001544321900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105012366842OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-247787DiVA, id: diva2:2005247
Available from: 2025-10-09 Created: 2025-10-09 Last updated: 2025-10-09Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Adamo, AngelaSaldana-Lopez, Alberto

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Adamo, AngelaSaldana-Lopez, Alberto
By organisation
Department of AstronomyThe Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmo Particle Physics (OKC)
In the same journal
Astrophysical Journal
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 68 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf