New Paper: Mocking the First Galaxies for JWST

Yesterday, PhD candidate Kirk Barrow submitted his first (!) paper (arXiv), titled “First Light: Exploring the Spectra of High-Redshift Galaxies in the Renaissance Simulations”. Correlations between physical and observational properties of the first galaxies are imperative to determine before JWST launches in October 2018. We have examined two of the most massive galaxies in detail in mock spectra, imaging, and photometry and then searched for any trends in the ~1,600 galaxies in the sample. There is very high variability in the smallest galaxies (like the ultra faint dwarfs around the Milky Way), but the trends settle into various relationships above 1 million solar masses in stars when star formation occurs on a more regular basis. We also found that viewing angle can account for a 3-fold difference in emergent flux due to the absorption of intervening gas in the galaxy.

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