{"month":"02","PlanS_conform":"1","date_updated":"2026-10-12T08:21:05Z","date_published":"2026-02-20T00:00:00Z","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","short":"CC BY (4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by.png"},"day":"20","quality_controlled":"1","oa":1,"acknowledgement":"A.M. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE-2444107. A.M. thanks Helena Treiber for helpful discussions. Support for this work was provided by The Brinson Foundation through a Brinson Prize Fellowship grant.\r\n\r\nThis work is based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5–26555. Financial support for programs JWST-GO-1837, JWST-GO-2561, JWST-GO-4111, and JWST-GO-6405 is gratefully acknowledged and is provided by NASA through grants from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Associations of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS 5-03127. These observations are associated with programs JWST-GO-2561, JWST-ERS-1324, JWST-DD-2756, JWST-GO-4111, HST-GO-11689, HST-GO-13386, HST-GO/DD-13495, HST-GO-13389, HST-GO-15117, and HST-GO/DD-17231. Some of the data presented in this article were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The specific observations analyzed can be accessed via doi:10.17909/grtw-hr67. Some of the data products presented herein were retrieved from the Dawn JWST Archive (DJA). DJA is an initiative of the Cosmic Dawn Center, which is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant No. 140.\r\n\r\nFacilities: JWST - James Webb Space Telescope (NIRCam and NIRSpec), HST - Hubble Space Telescope satellite (WFC3 and ACS).\r\n\r\nSoftware: NumPy (https://numpy.org, C. R. Harris et al. 2020), Astropy (https://astropy.org, Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018, 2022), Matplotlib (https://matplotlib.org, J. D. Hunter 2007), SciPy (https://scipy.org, P. Virtanen et al. 2020).","intvolume":"       998","file_date_updated":"2026-10-12T08:18:07Z","abstract":[{"text":"While bursty star formation in low-mass galaxies has been observed in local populations and reproduced in simulations, the dormant phase of the burst cycle has not been well studied beyond the local Universe due to observational limitations. We present a unique sample of 43 JWST PRISM spectra of low-mass galaxies (M⋆ < 10^9.5 M⊙) at cosmic noon (1 < z < 3), uniformly selected on F200W magnitude and precise photometric redshifts enabled by 20-band JWST photometry from the UNCOVER and MegaScience surveys. The spectra reveal numerous strong Balmer breaks, which are negatively correlated with the galaxies’ Hα equivalent width. By comparing these observations to synthetic samples of spectra generated using a simple parameterization of bursty star formation histories, we show that star formation in low-mass galaxies at cosmic noon is likely dominated by burst cycles with long timescales (≳100 Myr) and large deviations below the star-forming main sequence (≳0.8 dex). Our results suggest that galaxies in this population—at least those within our detection limits—should not be classified solely by their current star formation rates, but instead viewed as a unified population undergoing dynamic movement above and below the star-forming main sequence. The derived constraints demonstrate that long-timescale fluctuations are important for this class of galaxies, indicating that galaxy-scale gas cycles—rather than molecular-cloud-scale stochasticity—are the primary regulators of star formation variability in low-mass galaxies at cosmic noon.","lang":"eng"}],"researchdata_availability":"no","OA_type":"gold","article_type":"original","author":[{"first_name":"Abby","last_name":"Mintz","full_name":"Mintz, Abby"},{"first_name":"David J.","last_name":"Setton","full_name":"Setton, David J."},{"full_name":"Greene, Jenny E.","last_name":"Greene","first_name":"Jenny E."},{"first_name":"Joel","last_name":"Leja","full_name":"Leja, Joel"},{"full_name":"Wang, Bingjie","last_name":"Wang","first_name":"Bingjie"},{"first_name":"Emilie","full_name":"Burnham, Emilie","last_name":"Burnham"},{"first_name":"Katherine A.","last_name":"Suess","full_name":"Suess, Katherine A."},{"last_name":"Atek","full_name":"Atek, Hakim","first_name":"Hakim"},{"first_name":"Rachel","full_name":"Bezanson, Rachel","last_name":"Bezanson"},{"last_name":"Brammer","full_name":"Brammer, Gabriel","first_name":"Gabriel"},{"last_name":"Cutler","full_name":"Cutler, Sam E.","first_name":"Sam E."},{"full_name":"Dayal, Pratika","last_name":"Dayal","first_name":"Pratika"},{"full_name":"Feldmann, Robert","last_name":"Feldmann","first_name":"Robert"},{"full_name":"Furtak, Lukas J.","last_name":"Furtak","first_name":"Lukas J."},{"last_name":"Glazebrook","full_name":"Glazebrook, Karl","first_name":"Karl"},{"full_name":"Khullar, Gourav","last_name":"Khullar","first_name":"Gourav"},{"first_name":"Vasily","full_name":"Kokorev, Vasily","last_name":"Kokorev"},{"first_name":"Ivo","full_name":"Labbé, Ivo","last_name":"Labbé"},{"last_name":"Matthee","full_name":"Matthee, Jorryt J","orcid":"0000-0003-2871-127X","id":"7439a258-f3c0-11ec-9501-9df22fe06720","first_name":"Jorryt J"},{"first_name":"Michael V.","last_name":"Maseda","full_name":"Maseda, Michael V."},{"last_name":"Miller","full_name":"Miller, Tim B.","first_name":"Tim B."},{"last_name":"Mitsuhashi","full_name":"Mitsuhashi, Ikki","first_name":"Ikki"},{"first_name":"Themiya","full_name":"Nanayakkara, Themiya","last_name":"Nanayakkara"},{"last_name":"Pan","full_name":"Pan, Richard","first_name":"Richard"},{"first_name":"Sedona H.","full_name":"Price, Sedona H.","last_name":"Price"},{"last_name":"Weaver","full_name":"Weaver, John R.","first_name":"John R."},{"first_name":"Katherine E.","last_name":"Whitaker","full_name":"Whitaker, Katherine E."},{"first_name":"Belinda","last_name":"Wu","full_name":"Wu, Belinda"}],"issue":"2","type":"journal_article","status":"public","article_processing_charge":"Yes","supplementarymaterial":"yes","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","date_created":"2026-10-04T22:01:56Z","_id":"23052","doi":"10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c","ddc":["520"],"has_accepted_license":"1","department":[{"_id":"JoMa"}],"arxiv":1,"publication":"The Astrophysical Journal","publication_identifier":{"issn":["0004-637X"],"eissn":["1538-4357"]},"article_number":"257","das_tickbox":"1","publication_status":"published","title":"Taking a break at cosmic noon: Continuum-selected low-mass galaxies require long burst cycles","external_id":{"arxiv":["2506.16510"]},"year":"2026","publisher":"IOP Publishing","OA_place":"publisher","DOAJ_listed":"1","fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c","file":[{"access_level":"open_access","date_created":"2026-10-12T08:18:07Z","success":1,"file_name":"2026_AstrophysicalJour_Mintz.pdf","date_updated":"2026-10-12T08:18:07Z","checksum":"07b1a08dec5787883b195b73a2c4f2e5","file_size":3955341,"creator":"dernst","relation":"main_file","file_id":"23103","content_type":"application/pdf"}],"citation":{"ama":"Mintz A, Setton DJ, Greene JE, et al. Taking a break at cosmic noon: Continuum-selected low-mass galaxies require long burst cycles. <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. 2026;998(2). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c\">10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c</a>","chicago":"Mintz, Abby, David J. Setton, Jenny E. Greene, Joel Leja, Bingjie Wang, Emilie Burnham, Katherine A. Suess, et al. “Taking a Break at Cosmic Noon: Continuum-Selected Low-Mass Galaxies Require Long Burst Cycles.” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. IOP Publishing, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c\">https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c</a>.","ista":"Mintz A, Setton DJ, Greene JE, Leja J, Wang B, Burnham E, Suess KA, Atek H, Bezanson R, Brammer G, Cutler SE, Dayal P, Feldmann R, Furtak LJ, Glazebrook K, Khullar G, Kokorev V, Labbé I, Matthee JJ, Maseda MV, Miller TB, Mitsuhashi I, Nanayakkara T, Pan R, Price SH, Weaver JR, Whitaker KE, Wu B. 2026. Taking a break at cosmic noon: Continuum-selected low-mass galaxies require long burst cycles. The Astrophysical Journal. 998(2), 257.","ieee":"A. Mintz <i>et al.</i>, “Taking a break at cosmic noon: Continuum-selected low-mass galaxies require long burst cycles,” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>, vol. 998, no. 2. IOP Publishing, 2026.","short":"A. Mintz, D.J. Setton, J.E. Greene, J. Leja, B. Wang, E. Burnham, K.A. Suess, H. Atek, R. Bezanson, G. Brammer, S.E. Cutler, P. Dayal, R. Feldmann, L.J. Furtak, K. Glazebrook, G. Khullar, V. Kokorev, I. Labbé, J.J. Matthee, M.V. Maseda, T.B. Miller, I. Mitsuhashi, T. Nanayakkara, R. Pan, S.H. Price, J.R. Weaver, K.E. Whitaker, B. Wu, The Astrophysical Journal 998 (2026).","mla":"Mintz, Abby, et al. “Taking a Break at Cosmic Noon: Continuum-Selected Low-Mass Galaxies Require Long Burst Cycles.” <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>, vol. 998, no. 2, 257, IOP Publishing, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c\">10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c</a>.","apa":"Mintz, A., Setton, D. J., Greene, J. E., Leja, J., Wang, B., Burnham, E., … Wu, B. (2026). Taking a break at cosmic noon: Continuum-selected low-mass galaxies require long burst cycles. <i>The Astrophysical Journal</i>. IOP Publishing. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c\">https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae328c</a>"},"oa_version":"Published Version","scopus_import":"1","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"volume":998}