Early Results from GLASS-JWST. VII. Evidence for Lensed, Gravitationally Bound Protoglobular Clusters at z=4 in the Hubble Frontier Field A2744*

E. Vanzella*, M. Castellano, P. Bergamini, T. Treu, A. Mercurio, C. Scarlata, P. Rosati, C. Grillo, A. Acebron, G. B. Caminha, M. Nonino, T. Nanayakkara, G. Roberts-Borsani, M. Bradac, X. Wang, G. Brammer, James B Strait, B. Vulcani, U. Mestric, M. MeneghettiF. Calura, Alaina Henry, A. Zanella, M. Trenti, K. Boyett, T. Morishita, A. Calabro, K. Glazebrook, D. Marchesini, S. Birrer, L. Yang, T. Jones

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

We investigate the blue and optical rest-frame sizes (lambda similar or equal to 2300-4000 angstrom) of three compact star-forming regions in a galaxy at z = 4 strongly lensed (x30, x45, and x100) by the Hubble Frontier Field galaxy cluster A2744 using GLASS-ERS James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)/NIRISS imaging at 1.15 mu m, 1.50 mu m, and 2.0 mu m with a point-spread function less than or similar to 0.'' 1. In particular, the Balmer break is probed in detail for all multiply imaged sources of the system. With ages of a few tens of Myr, stellar masses in the range (0.7-4.0) x10(6) M (circle dot) and optical/ultraviolet effective radii spanning the interval 3 < R ( eff ) < 20 pc, such objects are currently the highest-redshift (spectroscopically confirmed) gravitationally bound young massive star clusters (YMCs), with stellar mass surface densities resembling those of local globular clusters. Optical (4000 angstrom, JWST-based) and ultraviolet (1600 angstrom, Hubble Space Telescope-based) sizes are fully compatible. The contribution to the ultraviolet underlying continuum emission (1600 angstrom) is similar to 30%, which decreases by a factor of 2 in the optical for two of the YMCs (similar to 4000 angstrom rest-frame), reflecting the young ages (

Original languageEnglish
Article number53
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume940
Issue number2
Number of pages8
ISSN2041-8205
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2022

Keywords

  • STAR-FORMING CLUMPS
  • GALAXIES
  • II.
  • ABELL-2744
  • RESOLUTION
  • EVOLUTION

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