Affiliation: Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço – CAUP

Contribution: Poster

Title: On the challenge of interpreting color maps of high-z starburst galaxies with the JWST and Euclid

Abstract: Morphology and color patterns provide fundamental insights into the early formation history of starburst galaxies at high z. However, a 2D reconstruction of the rest-frame properties of such systems from multi-band imaging data is a highly non-trivial task. This is mainly due to the fact that their spectral energy distribution is spatially inhomogeneous, thus the usual practice of applying a spatially constant “morphological” k-correction tailored to their integral (luminosity-weighted) SED is generally inadequate. In addition, color maps of high-z starburst galaxies are strongly affected by intense emission lines moving in and out of filter passbands depending on z, and, if taken at face value, they can lead to serious misinterpretations with respect to the nature and physical properties (e.g., age, stellar surface density and intrinsic extinction) of these systems. The significance of this problem is demonstrated using simulated color maps of the blue compact galaxy Haro 11 out to z~5.

This contribution can be found at the Poster Hall.