JWST NIRSpec High-resolution Spectroscopy of MACS0647–JD at z = 10.167: Resolved O ii Doublet and Electron Density in an Early Galaxy

Abstract We present JWST/NIRSpec high-resolution G395H/F290LP spectroscopy of MACS0647−JD, a gravitationally lensed galaxy merger at z = 10.167. The new spectroscopy, which is acquired for the two lensed images (JD1 and JD2), detects and resolves emission lines in the rest-frame ultraviolet and blue optical, including the resolved O ii λ λ 3726, 3729 doublet, Ne iii λ 3870, He i λ 3890, H δ , H γ , and O iii λ 4363. This is the first observation of the resolved O ii λ λ 3726, 3729 doublet for a galaxy at z > 8. We measure a line flux ratio O ii λ 3729/ λ 3726 = 0.9 ± 0.3, which corresponds to an estimated electron density of log ( n e / cm − 3 ) = 2.9 ± 0.5 . This is significantly higher than the electron densities of local galaxies reported in the literature. We compile measurements from the literature and further analyze the redshift evolution of n e . We find that the redshift evolution follows the power-law form of n e = A × (1 + z ) p with A = 54 − 23 + 31 cm −3 and p = 1.2 − 0.4 + 0.4 . This power-law form may be explained by a combination of metallicity and morphological evolution of galaxies, which become, on average, more metal poor and more compact with increasing redshift.