PRISMS. UNCOVER-26185, a metal-poor SFG at z=10.05 with no evidence for a X-ray-luminous AGN

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Authors: Javier Álvarez-Márquez, Luis Colina, Alejandro Crespo Gómez, S. Kendrew, J. Zavala, R. Marques-Chaves, Carlota Prieto-Jiménez, Abdurro'uf, Carmen Blanco-Prieto, L. A. Boogaard, M. Castellano, A. Fontana
+22 more Y. Fudamoto, S. Fujimoto, M. García-Marín, Yuichi Harikane, S. Harish, Takuya Hashimoto, T. Hsiao, Edoardo Iani, Akio K. Inoue, Danial Langeroodi, R. Lin, J. Melinder, L. Napolitano, Göran Östlin, Pablo G. Pérez‐González, P. Rinaldi, Bruno Rodríguez Del Pino, Paola Santini, Yuma Sugahara, T. Treu, A. Varo-O'ferral, G. Wright
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Abstract

This work presents the first results of the PRImordial galaxy Survey with MIRI Spectroscopy (PRISMS), a JWST cycle 4 program (PID 8051) aimed at the characterization of a relatively large sample of ten galaxies about 500 Myr after the Big Bang. Here, we present deep (13.9 hours) spectroscopy with the MIRI LRS of the lensed galaxy UNCOVER-26185 at a redshift of z=10.054. It is a faint UV galaxy (UV absolut magnitude of -18.83 mag) previously identified as a X-ray luminous AGN. MIRI LRS detects the H$β$+[OIII]4960,5008 complex and H$α$ emission line with a significance of 10$σ$ and 8$σ$, respectively, as well as the optical continuum emission at rest-frame 0.45 $μ$m and 0.57 $μ$m with a signal-to-noise ratio of 6-7. The UV-to-optical spectral energy distribution, combining continuum and emission lines, is compatible with: (i) a low stellar (A$_V$= 0.2) and nebular (A$_V$=0.0) extinction, (ii) a SFH composed by a young (7 Myr) starburst and an intermediate-age (65 Myr) stellar population, and (iii) a total stellar mass of 1.7$\times$10$^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$. The H$α$-derived star-formation rate is 1.3 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. The low optical emission line ratios locate UNCOVER-26185 as the most metal-poor (Z = 0.04 Z$_{\odot}$), and as outlier with the lowest ionization (logU=-2.5) galaxy identified so far at redshifts above 9. With no evidence of an active galactic nuclei in the rest-frame UV-to-optical spectrum, UNCOVER-26185 has the properties of a metal-poor, main-sequence star-forming galaxy at redshift 10, with ISM and ionization properties very different than those of the already studied UV-bright galaxies at redshifts beyond 10. PRISMS is starting to explore the population of intermediate-UV luminosity galaxies at z=10, covering UV absolute magnitudes in the range of -17.9 to -20.5, fainter than those of UV-bright galaxies studied so far.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Galaxies: Formation Evolution Phenomena Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies Stellar planetary and galactic studies

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
2 February 2026
Document type
Preprint