Unveiling the Nature of Infrared Bright, Optically Dark Galaxies with Early JWST Data. (arXiv:2207.14733v1 [astro-ph.GA])

Unveiling the Nature of Infrared Bright, Optically Dark Galaxies with Early JWST Data. (arXiv:2207.14733v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Barrufet_L/0/1/0/all/0/1">L. Barrufet</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Oesch_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">P. A. Oesch</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Weibel_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Weibel</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Brammer_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">G. Brammer</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bezanson_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R.Bezanson</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bouwens_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. Bouwens</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Fudamoto_Y/0/1/0/all/0/1">Y. Fudamoto</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gonzalez_V/0/1/0/all/0/1">V. Gonzalez</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Illingworth_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">G. Illingworth</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Heintz_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">K. E. Heintz</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Holden_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">B. Holden</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Labbe_I/0/1/0/all/0/1">I. Labbe</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Magee_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. Magee</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Naidu_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R.P. Naidu</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Nelson_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Nelson</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Stefanon_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Stefanon</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Smit_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. Smit</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dokkum_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">P. van Dokkum</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Weaver_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Weaver</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Williams_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. Williams</a>

Over the last few years, both ALMA and Spitzer/IRAC observations have
revealed a population of likely massive galaxies at $z>3$ that was too faint to
be detected in HST rest-frame ultraviolet imaging. However, due to the very
limited photometry for individual galaxies, the true nature of these so-called
HST-dark galaxies has remained elusive. Here, we present the first sample of
such galaxies observed with very deep, high-resolution NIRCam imaging from the
Early Release Science Program CEERS. 33 HST-dark sources are selected based on
their red colours across 1.6 $mu$m to 4.4 $mu$m. Their physical properties
are derived from 12-band multi-wavelength photometry, including ancillary HST
imaging. We find that these galaxies are generally heavily dust-obscured
($A_{V}sim2$ mag), massive ($log (M/M_{odot}) sim10$), star-forming sources
at $zsim2-8$ with an observed surface density of $sim0.8$ arcmin$^{-2}$. This
suggests that an important fraction of massive galaxies may have been missing
from our cosmic census at $z>3$ all the way into the reionization epoch. The
HST-dark sources lie on the main-sequence of galaxies and add an obscured star
formation rate density (SFRD) of $mathrm{1.3^{+1.6}_{-1.0} times 10^{-3}
M_{odot}/yr/Mpc^{3}}$ at $zsim6$, similar to previous estimates. Our analysis
shows the unique power of JWST to reveal this previously missing galaxy
population and to provide a complete census of galaxies at $z=2-8$ based on
rest-frame optical imaging.

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