Resolving stellar populations, star formation, and ISM conditions with JWST in a large spiral galaxy at z $\sim$ 2
/ Authors
E. Parlanti, G. Tozzi, N. F. Schreiber, C. Pulsoni, Letizia Scaloni, S. Pastras, P. Oesch, C. Barfety, F. Belfiore, Jianhang Chen
and 23 more authors
G. Cresci, R. Davies, F. Eisenhauer, J. M. E. Salcedo, R. Genzel, R. Herrera-Camus, Jeana Lee, Minju M. Lee, Daizhong Liu, D. Lutz, F. Mannucci, G. Mazzolari, T. Naab, A. N. Shachar, S. Price, A. Renzini, T. Shimizu, A. Sternberg, M. Scialpi, E. Sturm, L. Tacconi, H. Ubler, S. Wuyts
/ Abstract
Cosmic noon represents the prime epoch of galaxy assembly, and a sweet spot for observations with the James Webb Telescope (JWST) and ground-based near-IR integral-field unit (IFU) spectrographs. This work analyses JWST NIRSpec Micro Shutter Array (MSA), NIRCam Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS) of K20-ID7, a large spiral, star-forming (SF) galaxy at z=2.2, with evidence for radial gas inflows. By exploiting the synergy with ground-based IFU ERIS observations, we conduct a comprehensive and resolved study of the interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar properties, from rest optical to near-IR, via emission-line diagnostics, resolved spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting of high-resolution imaging, and Pa$\beta$ line detection in NIRCam WFSS data. Our analysis reveals massive ($M_{\star}\simeq$(0.67-3.5)$\times$10$^{9}$ $M_{\odot}$) SF clumps with star formation rates (SFRs) ~3-24 $M_{\odot}$/yr, and quite low dust attenuation ($A_V\simeq$0.4), electron density ($n_{e}$<300 cm$^{-3}$), and ionisation (log(U)$\simeq -3.0$). The central bulge turns out to be modestly massive ($M_{\star}$=(7$\pm$3)$\times$10$^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$), heavily obscured ($A_V$=6.43$\pm$0.55), and likely to have formed most of its stellar mass in the past (SFR=82$\pm$42 $M_{\odot}$/yr over the last 100 Myr), yet still forming stars at a lower rate (SFR=12$\pm$8 M$_{\odot}$/yr over the last 10 Myr). We infer a metallicity 12+log(O/H)~8.54 and an apparent enhancement of the N/O abundance (log(N/O)$\simeq -1.0$) in all distinct galaxy regions, a likely consequence of dilution effects due to radial inflows of metal-poor gas. We measure a sub-solar sulfur abundance (log(S/O)$\simeq$-1.9). Finally, the radial stellar age profile reveals older stellar populations in the inner galaxy regions compared to the outskirts, pointing to an inside-out growth of K20-ID7.