English

The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. V. H$\alpha$ luminosity functions at $z\sim1.3$ and $z\sim2.0$

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2026-04-06 v2

Abstract

We present Hα\alpha luminosity function (LF) measurements at redshifts z1.3z\sim1.3 and z2.0z\sim2.0 using JWST NIRISS grism data from the GLASS-JWST survey. Based on emission lines spectroscopically identified in the F115W, F150W and F200W filters, we select 99 Hα\alpha emitters. Through detailed effective volume and completeness analysis for each source, we construct the Hα\alpha LF in two redshift bins. Thanks to the sensitivity of NIRISS WFSS and gravitational lensing magnification, our sample reaches intrinsic Hα\alpha luminosities \sim10 times deeper than previous grism surveys, down to LHα1040.5 erg s1L_{\rm H\alpha}\sim10^{40.5}~\rm erg~s^{-1} at z1.3z\sim1.3 and LHα1040.9 erg s1L_{\rm H\alpha}\sim10^{40.9}~\rm erg~s^{-1} at z2.0z\sim2.0 with completeness larger than 0.8, corresponding to star formation rates of 0.4 and 1.0 M yr1M_{\odot}~\rm yr^{-1}, respectively. We robustly constrain the faint-end slope of the Hα\alpha luminosity function to be 1.500.08+0.14-1.50^{+0.14}_{-0.08} at z1.3z\sim1.3 and 1.600.09+0.17-1.60^{+0.17}_{-0.09} at z2.0z\sim2.0 after considering the cosmic variance of 20%\sim 20\%, consistent with previous estimations. The emission-line samples presented here will enable further detailed studies of galaxy properties including metallicities. We find a negligible contribution from bright active galactic nuclei in our sample. We estimate integrated cosmic star formation rate densities of 0.0970.016+0.015 M yr1 Mpc30.097^{+0.015}_{-0.016}~M_{\odot}~\rm yr^{-1}~Mpc^{-3} at z1.3z\sim1.3 and 0.1290.030+0.025 M yr1 Mpc30.129^{+0.025}_{-0.030}~M_{\odot}~\rm yr^{-1}~Mpc^{-3} at z2.0z\sim2.0. The methodology presented here can be readily applicable to other JWST slitless spectroscopic datasets and future wide-field slitless surveys, including those from Euclid, Roman, and the Chinese Space Station Telescope.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.23157,
  title  = {The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. V. H$\alpha$ luminosity functions at $z\sim1.3$ and $z\sim2.0$},
  author = {Yuxuan Pang and Xin Wang and Tommaso Treu and Qianqiao Zhou and Shengzhe Wang and Xue-Bing Wu and Maruša Bradač and Karl Glazebrook and Nicha Leethochawalit and Matthew A. Malkan and Themiya Nanayakkara and Benedetta Vulcani and Peter J. Watson and Hu Zhan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.23157},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted by ApJ