Spatially Resolved Analysis of Ionization Mechanisms in SGAS1723+34

Abstract Understanding the ionizing sources inside galaxies has been a decades-long goal for astronomers. Using spatially resolved JWST/NIRSpec data, we explore the emission line diagnostics [O iii ]/H β versus [N ii ]/H α and [S ii ]/H α in SGAS1723+34, a galaxy at redshift z = 1.3293. The diagnostic diagrams show possible Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) ionization in the galaxy; however, with further analysis of the imaging contours, we find that this AGN detection is located within a star-forming clump. We propose that the AGN detection from the BPT diagram is caused by the galaxy-wide formation of stellar populations with harder ionizing spectra than those found at low redshift.