Alex Cameron (Oxford)
Unveiling the chemical evolution of galaxies in the early Universe with JWST: the JADES and GA-IFU programs.
The first few years of JWST operations will see Hubble surpassed in studies for high-redshift galaxies. Not only will we find much larger samples, but the long-wavelength sensitivity and spectroscopy made available with JWST will allow characterisation like never before.
In this talk, I will present the plans for two GTO surveys which will greatly advance our understanding of the chemical evolution of high-redshift galaxies.
First, the joint NIRCam, NIRSpec imaging and spectroscopic survey, JADES (JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey). JADES will leverage the multi-object mode of NIRSpec to assemble a large sample of spectroscopic measurements of high-redshift galaxies. Probing the nebular emission of these galaxies will provide the ISM conditions of these galaxies, chemical abundances, and dust properties, among other information.
Second, the Galaxy Assembly IFU survey will target a few dozen high-redshift galaxies (z~3-7) with the integral-field mode on NIRSpec, providing spatially resolved emission line maps. This will enable spatially resolved chemical abundance measurements, including metallicity gradients, in the early Universe, placing new constraints on metal production and transport within high-redshift galaxies.