Substantial populations of massive quiescent galaxies at z≥3 challenge our understanding of rapid galaxy growth and quenching over short timescales. In order to piece together this evolutionary puzzle, more statistical samples of these objects are required. Established techniques for identifying massive quiescent galaxies are increasingly inefficient and unconstrained at z>3. As a result, studies report that as much as 70\% of quiescent galaxies at z>3 may be missed from existing surveys. In this work, we propose a new empirical color selection technique designed to select massive quiescent galaxies at 3≲z≲6 using JWST NIRCam imaging data. We use empirically-constrained galaxy SED templates to define a region in the F277W−F444W vs. F150W−F277W color plane that captures quiescent galaxies at z>3. We apply this color selection criteria to the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey and identify 44 candidate z≳3 quiescent galaxies. Over half of these sources are newly discovered and, on average, exhibit specific star formation rates of post-starburst galaxies. We derive volume density estimates of n∼1−4×10−5\,Mpc−3 at 3<z<5, finding excellent agreement with existing reports on similar populations in the CEERS field. Thanks to NIRCam's wavelength coverage and sensitivity, this technique provides an efficient tool to search for large samples of these rare galaxies.
@article{arxiv.2305.04662,
title = {Efficient NIRCam Selection of Quiescent Galaxies at 3 < z < 6 in CEERS},
author = {Arianna S. Long and Jacqueline Antwi-Danso and Erini L. Lambrides and Christopher C. Lovell and Alexander de la Vega and Francesco Valentino and Jorge A. Zavala and Caitlin M. Casey and Stephen M. Wilkins and L. Y. Aaron Yung and Pablo Arrabal Haro and Micaela B. Bagley and Laura Bisigello and Katherine Chworowsky and Michael C. Cooper and Olivia R. Cooper and Asantha R. Cooray and Darren Croton and Mark Dickinson and Steven L. Finkelstein and Maximilien Franco and Katriona M. L. Gould and Michaela Hirschmann and Taylor A. Hutchison and Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe and Dale D. Kocevski and Anton M. Koekemoer and Ray A. Lucas and Jed McKinney and Casey Papovich and Pablo G. Perez-Gonzalez and Nor Pirzkal and Paola Santini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.04662},
year = {2023}
}