Resolved Dust in $z\approx1$ Galaxies with JWST/MIRI MRS: Survey Description and First View on PAHs, Mid-IR Atomic Emission, and Warm H$_2$

[2608.27560] Resolved Dust in $z\approx1$ Galaxies with JWST/MIRI MRS: Survey Description and First View on PAHs, Mid-IR Atomic Emission, and Warm H$_2$ Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > Astrophysics of Galaxies arXiv:2608.27560 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 27 Aug 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 16 Sep 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: Resolved Dust in $z\approx1$ Galaxies with JWST/MIRI MRS: Survey Description and First View on PAHs, Mid-IR Atomic Emission, and Warm H$_2$ Authors: Wuji Wang , Andreas L. Faisst , Thomas S.-Y. Lai , Kyle Finner , Jed McKinney , Andrew J. Battisti , Irene Shivaei , Leindert A. Boogaard , Daizhong Liu , Yu-Heng Lin , Lun-Jun Liu , Georgios Magdis , Vincenzo Mainieri , Alexander Rodriguez , John D. Silverman , Zhaoxuan Liu , Minju M. Lee , Ghassem Gozaliasl , Maximilien Franco View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Dust is a key component of galaxies that regulates their thermal balance and, consequently, star formation and the build-up of stellar mass. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are responsible for reprocessing radiative energy of the galaxies thus tracing dust evolution. Using JWST/MIRI MRS, we present the first resolved view of the PAHs and mid-infrared emission lines in a sample of eight $z\approx1$ galaxies. A key novelty is our ability to directly map PAH emission near the end of cosmic noon at JWST's limits. The sample is selected to be on the star-forming main-sequence with stellar masses $M_{\star}=10^{10.6-11.2}\,M_{\odot}$ and infrared luminosities $L_{\rm IR}=10^{11.5-11.9}\,L_{\odot}$. Two of them contain active galactic nuclei (AGN), and two are interacting systems. We detect and quantify primary PAH emissions from 3.3$\,\rm \mu m$ to 11.3$\,\rm\mu m$ throughout the galaxies, alongside atomic fine structure lines (Ar, Ne, and Fe), Br$\alpha$, and H$_{2}$ rotational transitions. Through PAH ratio diagnostics and comparison to theoretical models, we qualitatively probe the physical properties of PAH molecules, i.e., size and charge. The AGN and mergers in our sample exhibit a higher fraction of neutral PAHs, possibly related to high radiation intensity and/or shocks, as suggested by increased atomic and H$_{2}$ line ratios. Leveraging the IFU data, we find that the grain sizes of the centrally located PAHs tend to be larger and less ionized than those in the outskirts of the galaxies. Finally, we compare our results to observations of PAHs in local and similar-redshift galaxies, revealing a potential evolutionary trend when controlling $L_{\rm IR}$. Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ; main text 20 pages, 12 figures, 3 Tables Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) Cite as: arXiv:2608.27560 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2608.27560v2 [astro-ph.GA] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.27560 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aea07f Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Wuji Wang [ view email ] [v1] Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:00:01 UTC (8,076 KB) [v2] Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:17:46 UTC (8,077 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: astro-ph.GA < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. 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