TY - JOUR
T1 - Medium-band Astrophysics with the Grism of NIRCam In Frontier Fields (MAGNIF)
T2 - Spectroscopic Census of Hα Luminosity Functions and Cosmic Star Formation at z ∼ 4.5 and 6.3
AU - Fu, Shuqi
AU - Sun, Fengwu
AU - Jiang, Linhua
AU - Lin, Xiaojing
AU - Diego, Jose M.
AU - Furtak, Lukas J.
AU - Jauzac, Mathilde
AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.
AU - Li, Mingyu
AU - Oguri, Masamune
AU - Patel, Nency R.
AU - Willmer, Christopher N.A.
AU - Windhorst, Rogier A.
AU - Zitrin, Adi
AU - Bauer, Franz E.
AU - Chen, Chian Chou
AU - Chen, Wenlei
AU - Cheng, Cheng
AU - Conselice, Christopher J.
AU - Eisenstein, Daniel J.
AU - Egami, Eiichi
AU - Espada, Daniel
AU - Fan, Xiaohui
AU - Fujimoto, Seiji
AU - Hsiao, Tiger Yu Yang
AU - Jin, Xiangyu
AU - Kohno, Kotaro
AU - Lagattuta, David J.
AU - Li, Zihao
AU - Liu, Weizhe
AU - Miralda-Escudé, Jordi
AU - Ning, Yuanhang
AU - Tacchella, Sandro
AU - Tee, Wei Leong
AU - Umehata, Hideki
AU - Wang, Feige
AU - Yan, Haojing
AU - Zhu, Yongda
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2025/7/10
Y1 - 2025/7/10
N2 - We measure Hα luminosity functions (LFs) at redshifts z ∼ 4.5 and 6.3 using the JWST Medium-band Astrophysics with the Grism of NIRCam In Frontier fields (MAGNIF) survey. MAGNIF obtained NIRCam grism spectra with the F360M and F480M filters in four Frontier Fields. We identify 248 Hα emitters based on the grism spectra and photometric redshifts from combined Hubble Space Telescope and JWST imaging data. The numbers of the Hα emitters show a large field-to-field variation, highlighting the necessity of multiple fields to mitigate cosmic variance. We calculate observed and dust-corrected Hα LFs at the two redshifts. Thanks to the gravitational lensing, the measured Hα LFs span three orders of magnitude in luminosity, and the faint-end luminosity reaches LHα ∼ 1040.3 erg s−1 at z ∼ 4.5 and 1041.5 erg s−1 at z ∼ 6.3. They correspond to star formation rates of ∼0.1 and 1.7 M⊙ yr−1, respectively. We conclude no or weak redshift evolution of the faint-end slope of Hα LF across z ≃ 0.4-6.3, and the comparison with the faint-end slopes of UV LF indicates stochastic star formation history among low-mass Hα emitters. The derived cosmic star formation rate densities are 0.05 8 − 0.006 + 0.008 M ⊙ yr − 1 Mpc − 3 at z ∼ 4.5 and 0.02 5 − 0.007 + 0.009 M ⊙ yr − 1 Mpc − 3 at z ∼ 6.3. These are approximately 2.2 times higher than previous estimates based on dust-corrected UV LFs, but consistent with recent measurements from infrared surveys. We discuss uncertainties in the Hα LF measurements, including those propagated from the lens models, cosmic variance, and active galactic nucleus contribution, and we find that they have a negligible impact on the above results.
AB - We measure Hα luminosity functions (LFs) at redshifts z ∼ 4.5 and 6.3 using the JWST Medium-band Astrophysics with the Grism of NIRCam In Frontier fields (MAGNIF) survey. MAGNIF obtained NIRCam grism spectra with the F360M and F480M filters in four Frontier Fields. We identify 248 Hα emitters based on the grism spectra and photometric redshifts from combined Hubble Space Telescope and JWST imaging data. The numbers of the Hα emitters show a large field-to-field variation, highlighting the necessity of multiple fields to mitigate cosmic variance. We calculate observed and dust-corrected Hα LFs at the two redshifts. Thanks to the gravitational lensing, the measured Hα LFs span three orders of magnitude in luminosity, and the faint-end luminosity reaches LHα ∼ 1040.3 erg s−1 at z ∼ 4.5 and 1041.5 erg s−1 at z ∼ 6.3. They correspond to star formation rates of ∼0.1 and 1.7 M⊙ yr−1, respectively. We conclude no or weak redshift evolution of the faint-end slope of Hα LF across z ≃ 0.4-6.3, and the comparison with the faint-end slopes of UV LF indicates stochastic star formation history among low-mass Hα emitters. The derived cosmic star formation rate densities are 0.05 8 − 0.006 + 0.008 M ⊙ yr − 1 Mpc − 3 at z ∼ 4.5 and 0.02 5 − 0.007 + 0.009 M ⊙ yr − 1 Mpc − 3 at z ∼ 6.3. These are approximately 2.2 times higher than previous estimates based on dust-corrected UV LFs, but consistent with recent measurements from infrared surveys. We discuss uncertainties in the Hα LF measurements, including those propagated from the lens models, cosmic variance, and active galactic nucleus contribution, and we find that they have a negligible impact on the above results.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105010249964
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/adddb1
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/adddb1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105010249964
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 987
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 186
ER -