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The JWST Emission Line Survey (JELS): an untargeted search for H α emission line galaxies at z > 6 and their physical properties

Abstract:
We present the first results of the JWST Emission Line Survey (JELS). Utilizing the first NIRCam narrow-band imaging at 4.7 m, over 63 arcmin in the PRIMER/COSMOS field, we have identified 609 emission line galaxy candidates. From these, we robustly selected 35 H star-forming galaxies at , with H star-formation rates () of . Combining our unique H sample with the exquisite panchromatic data in the field, we explored their physical properties and star-formation histories, and compared these to a broad-band selected sample at which has offered vital new insights into the nature of high-redshift galaxies. UV-continuum slopes () were considerably redder for our H sample () compared to the broad-band sample (). This was not due to dust attenuation as our H sample was relatively dust-poor (median ); instead, we argue that the reddened slopes could be due to nebular continuum. We compared and the UV-continuum-derived to SED-fitted measurements averaged over canonical time-scales of 10 and 100 Myr ( and ). We found an increase in recent SFR for our sample of H emitters, particularly at lower stellar masses (). We also found that strongly traces SFR averaged over 10 Myr time-scales, whereas the UV-continuum overpredicts SFR on 100 Myr time-scales at low stellar masses. These results point to our H sample undergoing ‘bursty’ star formation. Our F356W sample showed a larger scatter in across all stellar masses, which has highlighted how narrow-band photometric selections of H emitters are key to quantifying the burstiness of star-formation activity.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1093/mnras/staf1006

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Author
ORCID:
0009-0003-5303-6920
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ORCID:
0000-0001-6889-8388
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ORCID:
0000-0003-4368-3326
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Author
ORCID:
0000-0001-8855-6107


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Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/02ap3w078
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Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/03wnrjx87
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Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/036f5mx38
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Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/057g20z61


Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Journal:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society More from this journal
Volume:
541
Issue:
2
Pages:
1348-1376
Publication date:
2025-06-23
Acceptance date:
2025-06-02
DOI:
EISSN:
1365-2966
ISSN:
0035-8711


Language:
English
Keywords:
Source identifiers:
3108746
Deposit date:
2025-07-11
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