Going deeper into the dark with COSMOS-Web

JWST unveils the total contribution of radio-selected NIR-faint galaxies to the cosmic star formation rate density

¹ CEA, IRFU, DAp, AIM, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CNRS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
² University of Bologna, Department of Physics and Astronomy (DIFA), Via Gobetti 93/2, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
³ INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio, via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁴ Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics, James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁶ SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy
⁷ INAF/IRA, Istituto di Radioastronomia, Via Piero Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁸ Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin Pegasi 51, CH-1290 Versoix, Switzerland
⁹ Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
¹⁰ The University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway Boulevard Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, 200 W Kawili St, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
¹² Caltech/IPAC, MS314-6, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
¹³ Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
¹⁴ DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
¹⁵ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
¹⁶ Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
¹⁷ Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
¹⁸ IFPU – Institute for fundamental physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, 34014 Trieste, Italy
¹⁹ INFN-Sezione di Trieste, via Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
²⁰ Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, 7701 Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
²¹ Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of the Western Cape, 7535 Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa
²² Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, 84 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA
²³ Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, and Sorbonne Université, 98 bis boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France
²⁴ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
²⁵ Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 10 Yuanhua Road, Nanjing 210023, China
²⁶ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91001, USA
²⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, PAB 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA
²⁸ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA

^⋆ Corresponding author: fabrizio.gentile@cea.fr

Received: 2 October 2024
Accepted: 28 February 2025

Abstract

We present the first follow-up with JWST of radio-selected near-infrared (NIR)-faint galaxies as part of the COSMOS-Web survey. By selecting galaxies detected at radio frequencies (S_3 GHz > 11.5 μJy; i.e., S/N >  5) and with faint counterparts at NIR wavelengths (F150W >  26.1 mag), we collected a sample of 127 likely dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). We estimated their physical properties through SED fitting, computed the first radio luminosity function for these types of sources and their contribution to the total cosmic star formation rate density. Our analysis confirms that these sources represent a population of highly dust-obscured (⟨A_v⟩∼3.5 mag) massive (⟨M_⋆⟩∼10^10.8 M_⊙) and star-forming galaxies (⟨SFR⟩∼300 M_⊙ yr⁻¹) located at ⟨z⟩∼3.6, representing the high-redshift tail of the full distribution of radio sources. Our results also indicate that these galaxies could dominate the bright end of the radio luminosity function and reach a total contribution to the cosmic star formation rate density equal to that estimated only considering NIR-bright sources at z ∼ 4.5. Finally, our analysis further confirms that the radio selection can be employed to collect statistically significant samples of DSFGs, representing a complementary alternative to the other selections based on JWST colors or detection at FIR/(sub)millimeter wavelengths.