Morphological and Star Formation Properties of Cosmic Noon Massive Quiescent Galaxies
Vaidik Prasal, Yogesh Wadadekar, Pralay Biswas, Rashi Jain
astro-ph.GA
Submitted: 2026-08-14
Updated: 2026-08-18
Comments: 28 pages, 13 figures, Submitted to ApJ, Comments Welcome
Project page: https://jwst-uncover.github.io/DR4.html
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
The gist: We analyze the star formation and morphological properties of massive quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon (2 < z < 3) in the Abell 2744 field, using deep JWST NIRCam broad-band and medium-band imaging
Terminology
Abstract
We analyze the star formation and morphological properties of massive quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon (2 < z < 3) in the Abell 2744 field, using deep JWST NIRCam broad-band and medium-band imaging from the UNCOVER Treasury program and the MegaScience survey, complemented by archival HST data. Using BAGPIPES SED modeling, we select 14 unique massive quiescent galaxies (M* 10 10 M, sSFR < 0.2/t age). Morphological analysis with statmorph and pysersic reveals that most galaxies are intermediate type or S0s with a median S'ersic index n about 4, consistent with bulge-dominated systems. This value remains constant over z about 1.5 -- 4, indicating that the morphology of massive galaxies is linked to their quiescence since at least z about 4. Spatially resolved SED modeling with piXedfit shows that about 79% of galaxies exhibit positive radial sSFR gradients, providing direct evidence for inside-out quenching, with the mean sSFR increasing by about2 dex from R/R e = 0.5 to 4.5. Formation time (t 50) profiles confirm that inner regions formed about 0.5 Gyr earlier, on average, than the outer regions, and quenching timescale profiles show that the cores were quenched more rapidly than the outskirts. Some galaxies show weak indications of possible AGN activity. Most galaxies are compact, with a mean half-mass radius of R e = 1.95 plus or minus 0.13 kpc. The observed inside-out quenching pattern and possible AGN signatures are consistent with AGN feedback playing a role in star formation cessation, while the bulge-dominated morphologies suggest morphological quenching may also contribute.
Sources
- Block Neural Autoregressive Flow
- The Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
- The 2013 Release of Cloudy
- Spider-Webb: Spatially-Resolved Evidence of Inside-Out Quenching in the Spiderweb Protocluster at $z \sim 2$
- All the Little Things in Abell 2744: $>$1000 Gravitationally Lensed Dwarf Galaxies at $z=0-9$ from JWST NIRCam Grism Spectroscopy
Related papers
- Apparent Stability in Self-Gravitating Turbulence and the Evolution of Molecular Clouds
- Two sets of potential-density basis pairs for the study of radial perturbations in collisionless spherical stellar systems
- Constraining reionization-era Ly alpha escape with JELS-MUSE: a highly complete H alpha-selected sample at z about6.1
- Deriving volume density profiles of filaments from observed surface densities
- Little Red Dots and Supermassive Black Hole Seed Formation in Ultralight Dark Matter Halos
- MEGATRON: how the first stars can create an iron metallicity plateau in the smallest dwarf galaxies