---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '21124'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened new horizons
in the study of quasar host galaxies during the reionization epoch (z > 6). Building
upon our previous initial measurements of stellar light from two quasar host galaxies
at these redshifts, we now report the detection of the stellar light from the
full Cycle 1 sample of 12 distant moderate-luminosity quasar (M1450 > −24 mag)
host galaxies at z > 6 from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. Using
JWST/NIRCam observations at 1.5 and 3.6 μm combined with 2D image decomposition
analysis, we successfully detect the host galaxies in 11 of the 12 targets, underscoring
the high detection rates achievable with moderate-luminosity quasars. Based on
two-band photometry and spectral energy distribution fitting, we find that our
host galaxies are massive, with log M*/M⊙ = 9.5–11.0. The effective radii range
from 0.6 to 3.2 kpc, comparable to the sizes of inactive galaxies with similar
masses at z ∼ 6 as measured with imaging from COSMOS-Web. Intriguingly, the two
quasar hosts with post-starburst features, which reside at the high-mass end of
our sample and exhibit relatively compact morphologies, have similar size and
stellar mass surface densities to quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 4–5. These findings
suggest that the so-called galaxy compaction scenario is already in place at the
reionization epoch, in which gas inflows during starburst phases drive centrally
concentrated star formation followed by rapid quenching, bridging the structural
transition of massive galaxies from relatively extended star-forming disks to
compact quiescent systems.
acknowledgement: "We sincerely thank Xiaohui Fan and Shenli Tang for their valuable
discussions and insightful suggestions.\r\n\r\nThis work is based on observations
made with the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive
for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated
by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract
NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with programs GO #1967,
GO #3859, and GO #1727. Support for these programs was provided by NASA through
a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127.
This work was supported by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative
(WPI), MEXT, Japan. This work used computing resources at Kavli IPMU. All the JWST
data used in this paper can be found in MAST: doi:10.17909/hqaf-an74.\r\n\r\nSupport
for this work was provided by NASA through grant JWST-GO-01727 awarded by the Space
Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities
for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. X.D. is supported
by Wuhan University's Double First-Class funding. M.O. is supported by the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant No. G24K22894. Y.M. is
supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant
No. 21H04494. S.E.I.B. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
under Emmy Noether grant No. B.O. 5771/1-1. J.S. is supported by JSPS KAKENHI (JP22H01262)
and the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan.
K.I. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(12073003, 11721303, 11991052). A.L. acknowledges support from PRIN MUR 2022—Project
“2022935STW” J.T.S. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German
Research Foundation)—Project No. 518006966. M.V. gratefully acknowledges financial
support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark via grant Nos. DFF 8021-00130
and 3103-00146. K.I. acknowledges support under grant PID2022-136827NB-C44 provided
by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE. F.W. acknowledges support from NSF
award AST-2513040."
article_number: '91'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Xuheng
full_name: Ding, Xuheng
last_name: Ding
- first_name: Masafusa
full_name: Onoue, Masafusa
last_name: Onoue
- first_name: John D.
full_name: Silverman, John D.
last_name: Silverman
- first_name: Yoshiki
full_name: Matsuoka, Yoshiki
last_name: Matsuoka
- first_name: Takuma
full_name: Izumi, Takuma
last_name: Izumi
- first_name: Michael A.
full_name: Strauss, Michael A.
last_name: Strauss
- first_name: Lilan
full_name: Yang, Lilan
last_name: Yang
- first_name: Knud
full_name: Jahnke, Knud
last_name: Jahnke
- first_name: Camryn L.
full_name: Phillips, Camryn L.
last_name: Phillips
- first_name: Tommaso
full_name: Treu, Tommaso
last_name: Treu
- first_name: Irham T.
full_name: Andika, Irham T.
last_name: Andika
- first_name: Kentaro
full_name: Aoki, Kentaro
last_name: Aoki
- first_name: Junya
full_name: Arita, Junya
last_name: Arita
- first_name: Shunsuke
full_name: Baba, Shunsuke
last_name: Baba
- first_name: Sarah E. I.
full_name: Bosman, Sarah E. I.
last_name: Bosman
- first_name: Anna-Christina
full_name: Eilers, Anna-Christina
last_name: Eilers
- first_name: Seiji
full_name: Fujimoto, Seiji
last_name: Fujimoto
- first_name: Zoltán
full_name: Haiman, Zoltán
id: 7c006e8c-cc0d-11ee-8322-cb904ef76f36
last_name: Haiman
orcid: 0000-0003-3633-5403
- first_name: Masatoshi
full_name: Imanishi, Masatoshi
last_name: Imanishi
- first_name: Kohei
full_name: Inayoshi, Kohei
last_name: Inayoshi
- first_name: Kazushi
full_name: Iwasawa, Kazushi
last_name: Iwasawa
- first_name: Jeyhan
full_name: Kartaltepe, Jeyhan
last_name: Kartaltepe
- first_name: Nobunari
full_name: Kashikawa, Nobunari
last_name: Kashikawa
- first_name: Toshihiro
full_name: Kawaguchi, Toshihiro
last_name: Kawaguchi
- first_name: Junyao
full_name: Li, Junyao
last_name: Li
- first_name: Chien-Hsiu
full_name: Lee, Chien-Hsiu
last_name: Lee
- first_name: Alessandro
full_name: Lupi, Alessandro
last_name: Lupi
- first_name: Jan-Torge
full_name: Schindler, Jan-Torge
last_name: Schindler
- first_name: Malte
full_name: Schramm, Malte
last_name: Schramm
- first_name: Kazuhiro
full_name: Shimasaku, Kazuhiro
last_name: Shimasaku
- first_name: Marko
full_name: Shuntov, Marko
last_name: Shuntov
- first_name: Takumi S.
full_name: Tanaka, Takumi S.
last_name: Tanaka
- first_name: Yoshiki
full_name: Toba, Yoshiki
last_name: Toba
- first_name: Benny
full_name: Trakhtenbrot, Benny
last_name: Trakhtenbrot
- first_name: Hideki
full_name: Umehata, Hideki
last_name: Umehata
- first_name: Marianne
full_name: Vestergaard, Marianne
last_name: Vestergaard
- first_name: Feige
full_name: Wang, Feige
last_name: Wang
- first_name: Jinyi
full_name: Yang, Jinyi
last_name: Yang
citation:
ama: Ding X, Onoue M, Silverman JD, et al. SHELLQs-JWST unveils the host galaxies
of 12 quasars at z > 6. The Astrophysical Journal. 2025;993(1). doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae045b
apa: Ding, X., Onoue, M., Silverman, J. D., Matsuoka, Y., Izumi, T., Strauss, M.
A., … Yang, J. (2025). SHELLQs-JWST unveils the host galaxies of 12 quasars at
z > 6. The Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae045b
chicago: Ding, Xuheng, Masafusa Onoue, John D. Silverman, Yoshiki Matsuoka, Takuma
Izumi, Michael A. Strauss, Lilan Yang, et al. “SHELLQs-JWST Unveils the Host Galaxies
of 12 Quasars at z > 6.” The Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing,
2025. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae045b.
ieee: X. Ding et al., “SHELLQs-JWST unveils the host galaxies of 12 quasars
at z > 6,” The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 993, no. 1. IOP Publishing,
2025.
ista: Ding X, Onoue M, Silverman JD, Matsuoka Y, Izumi T, Strauss MA, Yang L, Jahnke
K, Phillips CL, Treu T, Andika IT, Aoki K, Arita J, Baba S, Bosman SEI, Eilers
A-C, Fujimoto S, Haiman Z, Imanishi M, Inayoshi K, Iwasawa K, Kartaltepe J, Kashikawa
N, Kawaguchi T, Li J, Lee C-H, Lupi A, Schindler J-T, Schramm M, Shimasaku K,
Shuntov M, Tanaka TS, Toba Y, Trakhtenbrot B, Umehata H, Vestergaard M, Wang F,
Yang J. 2025. SHELLQs-JWST unveils the host galaxies of 12 quasars at z >
6. The Astrophysical Journal. 993(1), 91.
mla: Ding, Xuheng, et al. “SHELLQs-JWST Unveils the Host Galaxies of 12 Quasars
at z > 6.” The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 993, no. 1, 91, IOP Publishing,
2025, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae045b.
short: X. Ding, M. Onoue, J.D. Silverman, Y. Matsuoka, T. Izumi, M.A. Strauss, L.
Yang, K. Jahnke, C.L. Phillips, T. Treu, I.T. Andika, K. Aoki, J. Arita, S. Baba,
S.E.I. Bosman, A.-C. Eilers, S. Fujimoto, Z. Haiman, M. Imanishi, K. Inayoshi,
K. Iwasawa, J. Kartaltepe, N. Kashikawa, T. Kawaguchi, J. Li, C.-H. Lee, A. Lupi,
J.-T. Schindler, M. Schramm, K. Shimasaku, M. Shuntov, T.S. Tanaka, Y. Toba, B.
Trakhtenbrot, H. Umehata, M. Vestergaard, F. Wang, J. Yang, The Astrophysical
Journal 993 (2025).
date_created: 2026-01-31T09:29:11Z
date_published: 2025-10-28T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-02-10T07:44:42Z
day: '28'
ddc:
- '520'
department:
- _id: ZoHa
doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae045b
external_id:
arxiv:
- '2505.03876'
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oa_version: Published Version
publication: The Astrophysical Journal
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 1538-4357
issn:
- 0004-637X
publication_status: published
publisher: IOP Publishing
quality_controlled: '1'
status: public
title: SHELLQs-JWST unveils the host galaxies of 12 quasars at z > 6
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