A Systematic Assessment of Total Stellar Mass Measurements with Spatially Resolved Photometry and Medium Bands at 1 < z < 9: The Impact of Mass-to-Light Variations and Outshining
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: JWST NIRCam spatially resolved photometry enables studies of galaxies' stellar populations and stellar masses on sub-kpc scales. We use JWST (CANUCS, Technicolor, JUMPS) and HST data, covering wide- and medium-band UV-IR filters to study the stellar mass bias between spatially resolved and integrated photometry of $\sim$3000 galaxies at 1 $ 10^{\mathrm{-8.5}}$ yr$^{\mathrm{-1}}$. For these high-sSFR galaxies, the median offset reaches $Δ\log_{\mathrm{10}} (M_{\ast})$ $\sim$ -0.36 dex with the largest bias occurring in low-mass ($M_{\ast} \leq 10^{\mathrm{ 9.5}} M_{\odot}$) galaxies. These results are consistent with the outshining of older populations by recent star formation. High-sSFR galaxies also show spatial variations in their mass-to-light ratios ($M_{\ast}/L_{V}$): the stellar mass bias decreases with $σ[\log_{\mathrm{10}}(M_{\ast}/L_{V})]$ for galaxies with $10^{\mathrm{-8}} \leq \mathrm{sSFR}[\mathrm{yr}^{\mathrm{-1}}] < 10^{\mathrm{-9}}$, with the strongest trend for $10^{\mathrm{-7}} \leq \mathrm{sSFR}[\mathrm{yr}^{\mathrm{-1}}] < 10^{\mathrm{-8}}$, quantified by the Spearman correlation coefficient $ρ_{\rm S}=-0.37$. While medium bands are important for constraining stellar masses from integrated photometry, spatially resolved photometry reduces the impact of their absence, with dispersion offsets of $Δ\log_{\mathrm{10}} (M_{\ast})$ = 0.33 dex for integrated photometry but 0.15 dex for resolved photometry when only wide-bands are included.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Jagga, Naadiyah, Muzzin, Adam, Sok, Visal, Tan, Vivian Yun Yan, Sarrouh, Ghassan, Iyer, Kartheik, Asada, Yoshihisa, Willott, Chris J., Bradač, Maruša, Martis, Nicholas S., Noirot, Gaël, Rihtaršič, Gregor, Sawicki, Marcin, Withers, Sunna, Antwi-Danso, Jacqueline, Berek, Samantha C, Marchesini, Danilo, Merchant, Maya, Myers, Katherine
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214887824