Stellar Half-Mass Radii of $0.5<z<2.3$ Galaxies: Comparison with JWST/NIRCam Half-Light Radii

Author(s)

Arjen van der Wel, Marco Martorano, Boris Häussler, Kalina V. Nedkova, Tim B. Miller, Gabriel B. Brammer, Glenn van de Ven, Joel Leja, Rachel S. Bezanson, Adam Muzzin, Danilo Marchesini, Anna de Graaff, Mariska Kriek, Eric F. Bell, Marijn Franx

Abstract

We use CEERS JWST/NIRCam imaging to measure rest-frame near-IR light profiles of 435 M

_⋆ > 10

¹⁰ M

_⊙ galaxies in the redshift range of 0.5 < z < 2.3. We compare the resulting rest-frame 1.5-2 μm half-light radii (R

_NIR) with stellar half-mass radii ( R M ⋆ ) derived with multicolor light profiles from CANDELS Hubble Space Telescope imaging. In general agreement with previous work, we find that R

_NIR and R M ⋆ are up to 40% smaller than the rest-frame optical half-light radius R

_opt. The agreement between R

_NIR and R M ⋆ is excellent, with a negligible systematic offset (<0.03 dex) up to z = 2 for quiescent galaxies and up to z = 1.5 for star-forming galaxies. We also deproject the profiles to estimate R M ⋆ , 3 D , the radius of a sphere containing 50% of the stellar mass. We present the R−M

_⋆ distribution of galaxies at 0.5 < z < 1.5, comparing R

_opt, R M ⋆ , and R M ⋆ , 3 D . The slope is significantly flatter for R M ⋆ and R M ⋆ , 3 D compared to R

_opt, mostly due to downward shifts in size for massive star-forming galaxies, while R M ⋆ and R M ⋆ , 3 D do not show markedly different trends. Finally, we show rapid evolution of the size (R ∝ (1 + z)

^−1.7±0.1) of massive (M

_⋆ > 10

¹¹ M

_⊙) quiescent galaxies between z = 0.5 and z = 2.3, again comparing R

_opt, R M ⋆ , and R M ⋆ , 3 D . We conclude that the main tenets of the evolution of the size narrative established over the past 20 yr, based on rest-frame optical light profile analysis, still hold in the era of JWST/NIRCam observations in the rest-frame near-IR.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

Ghent University , European Southern Observatory (Chile), Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, University of Copenhagen, Pennsylvania State University, University of Pittsburgh, York University, Tufts University, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Leiden University, University of Michigan

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal

Volume

960

No. of pages

18

ISSN

0004-637X

Publication date

01-2024

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Science

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/f9017f49-74ef-418c-b273-bb06eaa21a0d