PHANGS–JWST First Results: The 21 μm Compact Source Population
Hamid Hassani, Erik Rosolowsky, Adam K. Leroy, M. Boquien, Janice Lee, Ashley T. Barnes, Francesco Belfiore, Frank Bigiel, Yixian Cao, Mélanie Chevance, Daniel A. Dale, Oleg V. Egorov, Éric Emsellem, Christopher M. Faesi, Kathryn Grasha, Jaeyeon Kim, Ralf S. Klessen, Kathryn Kreckel, J. M. Diederik Kruijssen, Kirsten L. Larson, Sharon E. Meidt, Karin Sandström, Eva Schinnerer, David A. Thilker, Elizabeth J. Watkins, Bradley C. Whitmore, Thomas G. Williams
Abstract
Abstract We use PHANGS–James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data to identify and classify 1271 compact 21 μ m sources in four nearby galaxies using MIRI F2100W data. We identify sources using a dendrogram-based algorithm, and we measure the background-subtracted flux densities for JWST bands from 2 to 21 μ m. Using the spectral energy distribution (SED) in JWST and HST bands plus ALMA and MUSE/VLT observations, we classify the sources by eye. Then we use this classification to define regions in color–color space and so establish a quantitative framework for classifying sources. We identify 1085 sources as belonging to the ISM of the target galaxies with the remainder being dusty stars or background galaxies. These 21 μ m sources are strongly spatially associated with H ii regions (>92% of sources), while 74% of the sources are coincident with a stellar association defined in the HST data. Using SED fitting, we find that the stellar masses of the 21 μ m sources span a range of 10 2 –10 4 M ⊙ with mass-weighted ages down to 2 Myr. There is a tight correlation between attenuation-corrected H α and 21 μ m luminosity for L ν ,F2100W > 10 19 W Hz −1 . Young embedded source candidates selected at 21 μ m are found below this threshold and have M ⋆ < 10 3 M ⊙ .