JADES: Resolving the Stellar Component and Filamentary Overdense Environment of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)-dark Submillimeter Galaxy HDF850.1 at z = 5.18

Abstract

HDF850.1 is the brightest submillimeter galaxy (SMG) in the Hubble Deep Field. It is known as a heavily dust-obscured star-forming galaxy embedded in an overdense environment at z = 5.18. With nine-band NIRCam images at 0.8–5.0 μm obtained through the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, we detect and resolve the rest-frame UV–optical counterpart of HDF850.1, which splits into two components because of heavy dust obscuration in the center. The southern component leaks UV and Hα photons, bringing the galaxy ∼100 times above the empirical relation between infrared excess and UV continuum slope (IRX–β UV). The northern component is higher in dust attenuation and thus fainter in UV and Hα surface brightness. We construct a spatially resolved dust-attenuation map from the NIRCam images, well matched with the dust continuum emission obtained through millimeter interferometry. The whole system hosts a stellar mass of 1010.8±0.1 M ⊙ and star formation rate (SFR) of 102.8±0.2 M ⊙ yr−1, placing the galaxy at the massive end of the star-forming main sequence at this epoch. We further confirm that HDF850.1 resides in a complex overdense environment at z = 5.17–5.30, which hosts another luminous SMG at z = 5.30 (GN10). The filamentary structures of the overdensity are characterized by 109 Hα-emitting galaxies confirmed through NIRCam slitless spectroscopy at 3.9–5 μm, of which only eight were known before the JWST observations. Given the existence of a similar galaxy overdensity in the GOODS-S field, our results suggest that 50% ± 20% of the cosmic star formation at z = 5.1–5.5 occur in protocluster environments.