The JWST/PASSAGE Survey: Metallicity Radial Gradients in Emission-Line Galaxy Pairs at Cosmic Noon with NIRISS

@misc{li2026jwstpassage,
  title = {{The JWST/PASSAGE Survey: Metallicity Radial Gradients in Emission-Line Galaxy Pairs at Cosmic Noon with NIRISS}},
  author = {Sijia Li and Xin Wang and Matthew A. Malkan and Tucker Jones and Vihang Mehta and Y. Sophia Dai and Matthew J. Hayes and Claudia Scarlata and Harry I. Teplitz and Benedetta Vulcani and Ayan Acharyya and Hakim Atek and Andrew J. Bunker and Farhanul Hasan and Mason S. Huberty and Zahra Sattari and Peter J. Watson},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.41557},
  eprint = {2610.41557},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41557},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - The JWST/PASSAGE Survey: Metallicity Radial Gradients in Emission-Line Galaxy Pairs at Cosmic Noon with NIRISS
AU  - Sijia Li
AU  - Xin Wang
AU  - Matthew A. Malkan
AU  - Tucker Jones
AU  - Vihang Mehta
AU  - Y. Sophia Dai
AU  - Matthew J. Hayes
AU  - Claudia Scarlata
AU  - Harry I. Teplitz
AU  - Benedetta Vulcani
AU  - Ayan Acharyya
AU  - Hakim Atek
AU  - Andrew J. Bunker
AU  - Farhanul Hasan
AU  - Mason S. Huberty
AU  - Zahra Sattari
AU  - Peter J. Watson
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/30
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.41557
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41557
AB  - Using JWST/NIRISS slitless spectroscopy from the PASSAGE program, we analyze 17 spectroscopically confirmed emission-line galaxies in candidate interacting systems at z ∼ 1.7--$3.2$. These galaxies span stellar masses of 7.3 ≲ log(M_*/M_⊙) ≲ 10.4 and global gas-phase metallicities of 12+log(O/H) ∼ 7.6--$8.7$. From spatially resolved emission-line maps, we measure radial metallicity gradients separately for each galaxy, finding values from approximately −0.2 to +0.45 dex kpc^−1. The mean metallicity gradients in bins of stellar mass and redshift are consistent with previous measurements, and their scatter is not significantly different from that of the heterogeneous literature compilation in either the metallicity-gradient--stellar-mass or metallicity-gradient--redshift relation. We find tentative evidence for an anti-correlation between the metallicity gradient and the metallicity offset from the mass--metallicity relation, with a best-fit slope of −0.30 ± 0.06, possibly reflecting interaction-driven variations in star formation and chemical enrichment. Galaxies in pairs with comparable component masses tend to exhibit positive metallicity gradients, whereas galaxies in unequal-mass pairs tend to exhibit negative gradients; neither trend is statistically significant in the present sample. Overall, our results reveal substantial diversity in the metallicity distributions of candidate interacting systems at cosmic noon and provide tentative evidence that galaxy interactions may influence the redistribution of gas and metals.
ER  -