Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,203 studies31 sourcesUpdated 36 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BYThe Astrophysical Journal

The Fraction of Clumpy Galaxies in JADES Over 2 < z < 9

  • Alexander de la Vega1
  • Bahram Mobasher1
  • Zahra Sattari2
  • Nima Chartab2
  • Faezeh Manesh1
  • Niloofar Sharei1
  1. 1University of California
  2. 2IPAC
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

High-redshift galaxies exhibit compact regions of intense star formation, known as “clumps,” which are conspicuous in the rest-frame ultraviolet. Studying them can shed light on how they form and evolve and inform theoretical models of galaxy evolution. We examine the evolution of clumpy galaxies with redshift and stellar mass over 2 < z < 9 with James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging from the JWST Advanced Extragalactic Survey. Off-center clumps are detected in the rest-frame near-ultraviolet using similar techniques to those in earlier studies based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. This is done for a sample of 9121 star-forming galaxies with stellar masses log M ⋆ / M ⊙ ≥ 8 . The fraction of clumpy galaxies, f clumpy , increases from ∼10% at z ∼ 7.75 to ∼70% at z ∼ 2.75 at log M ⋆ / M ⊙ ≥ 9 . Our f clumpy values are generally higher at fixed redshift and increase faster with decreasing redshift than what studies based on HST data found, which we attribute largely to the higher sensitivity of JWST. f clumpy correlates with stellar mass. Our f clumpy measurements are compared with those from simulations as well as other observations. At low redshifts ( z ≲ 5.75) and intermediate-to-high stellar masses ( log M ⋆ / M ⊙ ≥ 9 ), our results suggest gas fragmentation due to violent disk instabilities to be the dominant mechanism for forming clumps. At high redshifts and intermediate stellar masses, compression of gas during mergers appears to dominate.

Related

  1. The clumpy fraction of galaxies at z=1−9 with JADES: evidence for a mass-dependent transition in clump origin
    Dávid Puskás, Sandro Tacchella, Phoebe Chapman +21
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textGalaxiesarXiv
  2. The fraction of clumpy star-forming galaxies in nearby galaxies from CLAUDS and HSC-SSP
    Jürgen J. Popp, Hugh Dickinson, Stephen Serjeant +3
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textGalaxiesarXiv
  3. The New Dark Matter Density Profile from JWST JADES Galaxies
    Aritra Sanyal, Farook Rahaman
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textGalaxiesGravitation & general relativityarXiv
  4. On the clumpy nature of super-early galaxies
    A. Ferrara, B. Das, M. Kohandel +2
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textGalaxiesarXiv
  5. Tiny Galaxies, Mighty Nitrogen: Linking Chemical Anomalies to Compact Galaxies at High Redshift using JWST/JADES
    Urvi Thakurdesai, Xihan Ji, Yuki Isobe +18
    arXivPreprintarXiv licenceFull textGalaxiesarXiv

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{vega2026fraction,
  title = {{The Fraction of Clumpy Galaxies in JADES Over 2 < z < 9}},
  author = {Alexander de la Vega and Bahram Mobasher and Zahra Sattari and Nima Chartab and Faezeh Manesh and Niloofar Sharei},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ae7b26},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae7b26},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - The Fraction of Clumpy Galaxies in JADES Over 2 < z < 9
AU  - Alexander de la Vega
AU  - Bahram Mobasher
AU  - Zahra Sattari
AU  - Nima Chartab
AU  - Faezeh Manesh
AU  - Niloofar Sharei
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/03
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/ae7b26
UR  - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae7b26
AB  - High-redshift galaxies exhibit compact regions of intense star formation, known as “clumps,” which are conspicuous in the rest-frame ultraviolet. Studying them can shed light on how they form and evolve and inform theoretical models of galaxy evolution. We examine the evolution of clumpy galaxies with redshift and stellar mass over 2 < z < 9 with James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging from the JWST Advanced Extragalactic Survey. Off-center clumps are detected in the rest-frame near-ultraviolet using similar techniques to those in earlier studies based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. This is done for a sample of 9121 star-forming galaxies with stellar masses log M ⋆ / M ⊙ ≥ 8 . The fraction of clumpy galaxies, f clumpy , increases from ∼10% at z ∼ 7.75 to ∼70% at z ∼ 2.75 at log M ⋆ / M ⊙ ≥ 9 . Our f clumpy values are generally higher at fixed redshift and increase faster with decreasing redshift than what studies based on HST data found, which we attribute largely to the higher sensitivity of JWST. f clumpy correlates with stellar mass. Our f clumpy measurements are compared with those from simulations as well as other observations. At low redshifts ( z ≲ 5.75) and intermediate-to-high stellar masses ( log M ⋆ / M ⊙ ≥ 9 ), our results suggest gas fragmentation due to violent disk instabilities to be the dominant mechanism for forming clumps. At high redshifts and intermediate stellar masses, compression of gas during mergers appears to dominate.
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
ER  -