Affiliation: National Centre for Nuclear Research

Contribution: Poster

Title: Quenching routes and dust attenuation in distant quiescent galaxies observed with JWST

Abstract: Unveiling the routes galaxies take to quiescence is one of the most open challenges in galaxy evolution. While the most of studies focused on characterizing quiescent galaxies (QG) across cosmic time through their stellar properties using optical/near-infrared (NIR) data, the mid-infrared (MIR) regime was only recently examined thanks to the advent of JWST. The need to understand the MIR emission in QGs has been emphasized due to recent discoveries of a peculiar population of quiescent, but dust-rich galaxies at high-redshitts (z>0.5-3). In this talk, I will present the preliminary results of a first study that investigated the quenching routes and the physical properties of MIRI-bright, dust-attenuated QGs in the distant universe. We selected a sample of quenched galaxies from the CEERS and JADES surveys of the AEGIS field with NIRCam and MIRI detection and available HST and NIRISS spectra up to a redshift of z~2.5. By combining the photometric and spectral properties of selected sources, we reconstructed their star-formation histories and times elapsed since the quenching event. We further studied how the galaxies’ structural and physical parameters (e.g., sizes, stellar masses, morphologies) relate to the variations seen in the sources dust attenuations. I will also explain how the MIR properties of QGs may impact the classical UVJ color selection of quenched galaxies and where the dust-attenuated QGs reside within the UVJ color plane. Finally, I will briefly present the context of our results within the galaxy formation and evolution framework, resulting from confronting our observational findings with cutting-edge cosmological simulations with physically modeled ISM cycles (e.g., SIMBA).

This contribution can be found in the Poster Hall.