The gas and stellar content of a metal-poor galaxy at $z=8.496$ revealed by JWST and ALMA

K. E. Heintz, C. Giménez-Arteaga, S. Fujimoto, G. Brammer, D. Espada, S. Gillman, J. González-López, T. R. Greve, Y. Harikane, B. Hatsukade, K. K. Knudsen, A. M. Koekemoer, K. Kohno, V. Kokorev, M. M. Lee, G. E. Magdis, E. J. Nelson, F. Rizzo, R. L. Sanders, D. Schaerer, A. E. Shapley, V. B. Strait, F. Sun, S. Toft, F. Valentino, A. P. Vijayan, D. Watson, F. E. Bauer, C. R. Christiansen, S. N. Wilson

Published 2022-12-13Version 1

We present a joint analysis of the galaxy S04590 at $z=8.496$ based on NIRSpec, NIRCam, and NIRISS observations obtained through as part of Early Release Observations programme of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the far-infrared [CII]-$158\mu$m emission line detected by dedicated Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations. We determine the physical properties of S04590 from modelling of the spectral energy distribution (SED) and through the redshifted optical nebular emission lines detected with JWST/NIRSpec. The best-fit SED model reveals a low-mass ($M_\star = 10^{7.2}-10^{8}\,M_{\odot}$) galaxy with a low oxygen abundance of $12+\log{\rm (O/H)} = 7.16^{+0.10}_{-0.12}$ derived from the strong nebular and auroral emission lines. Assuming that [CII] effectively traces the interstellar medium (ISM), we estimate the total gas mass of the galaxy to be $M_{\rm gas} = (8.0\pm 4.0)\times 10^{8}\,M_\odot$ based on the luminosity and spatial extent of [CII]. This yields an exceptionally high gas fraction, $f_{\rm gas} = M_{\rm gas}/(M_{\rm gas} + M_\star) \gtrsim 90\%$, though still consistent within the range expected for its low metallicity. We further derive the metal mass of the galaxy based on the gas mass and gas-phase metallicity, which we find to be consistent with the expected metal production from Type II supernovae. Finally, we make the first constraints on the dust-to-gas (DTG) and dust-to-metals (DTM) ratios of galaxies in the epoch of reionization at $z\gtrsim 6$, showing overall low mass ratios of logDGT $<-3.8$ and logDTM $<-0.5$, though consistent with local scaling relations and in particular the local metal-poor galaxy I Zwicky 18. Our analysis highlights the synergy between ALMA and JWST in characterizing the gas, metal, and stellar content of the first generation of galaxies.