PREPRINT
DD05AB6A-BC45-449F-89E4-AA99AAA045E9

# Opening the era of quasar host studies at high redshift with JWST

Xuheng Ding, John D. Silverman, Masafusa Onoue

Submitted on 7 September 2022

## Abstract

We measure the host galaxy properties of five quasars with $z\sim 1.6-3.5$ selected from SDSS and AEGIS, which fall within the JWST/HST CEERS survey area. A PSF library is constructed based on stars in the full field-of-view of the data and used with a 2-dimensional image modeling tool galight to decompose the quasar and its host with multi-band filters available for HST ACS+WFC3 and JWST NIRCAM (12 filters covering HST F606W to JWST F444W). As demonstrated, JWST provides the first capability to detect quasar hosts at $z>3$ and enables spatially-resolved studies of the underlying stellar populations at $z\sim 2$ within morphological structures (spiral arms, bar) not possible with HST. Overall, we find quasar hosts to be disk-like, lack merger signatures, and have sizes generally more compact than typical star-forming galaxies at their respective stellar, thus in agreement with results at lower redshifts. The fortuitous face-on orientation of SDSSJ1420+5300A at $z=1.646$ enables us to find higher star formation and younger ages in the central $2-4$ kpc region relative to the outskirts, which may help explain the relatively compact nature of quasar hosts and pose a challenge to AGN feedback models.

## Preprint

Comment: 11 pages, 1 table, 6 figures; submitted to ApJ; Comments welcome

Subject: Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies