TY - JOUR
T1 - A Spectroscopically Calibrated Prescription for Extracting Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Flux from JWST MIRI Imaging
AU - Donnelly, Grant P.
AU - Lai, Thomas S.-Y.
AU - Armus, Lee
AU - Díaz-Santos, Tanio
AU - Larson, Kirsten L.
AU - Barcos-Muñoz, Loreto
AU - Bianchin, Marina
AU - Bohn, Thomas
AU - Böker, Torsten
AU - Buiten, Victorine A.
AU - Charmandaris, Vassilis
AU - Evans, Aaron S.
AU - Howell, Justin
AU - Inami, Hanae
AU - Kakkad, Darshan
AU - Lenkić, Laura
AU - Linden, Sean T.
AU - Lofaro, Cristina M.
AU - Malkan, Matthew A.
AU - Medling, Anne M.
AU - Privon, George C.
AU - Ricci, Claudio
AU - Smith, J. D. T.
AU - Song, Yiqing
AU - Stierwalt, Sabrina
AU - van der Werf, Paul P.
AU - U, Vivian
N1 - © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
PY - 2025/4/10
Y1 - 2025/4/10
N2 - We introduce a prescription for estimating the flux of the 7.7 μm and 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features from broadband JWST/MIRI images. Probing PAH flux with MIRI imaging data has advantages in field of view, spatial resolution, and sensitivity compared with MIRI spectral maps, but comparisons with spectra are needed to calibrate these flux estimations over a wide variety of environments. For 267 MIRI/MRS spectra from independent regions in the four luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey Early Release Science program, we derive synthetic filter photometry and directly compare estimated PAH fluxes to those measured from detailed spectral fits. We find that for probing PAH 7.7 μm, the best combination of filters is F560W, F770W, and either F1500W or F2100W, and the best for PAH 11.3 μm is F560W, F1000W, F1130W, and F1500W. The prescription with these combinations yields predicted flux densities that typically agree with values from spectral decomposition within ∼7% and ∼5% for PAH 7.7 and 11.3 μm, respectively.
AB - We introduce a prescription for estimating the flux of the 7.7 μm and 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features from broadband JWST/MIRI images. Probing PAH flux with MIRI imaging data has advantages in field of view, spatial resolution, and sensitivity compared with MIRI spectral maps, but comparisons with spectra are needed to calibrate these flux estimations over a wide variety of environments. For 267 MIRI/MRS spectra from independent regions in the four luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey Early Release Science program, we derive synthetic filter photometry and directly compare estimated PAH fluxes to those measured from detailed spectral fits. We find that for probing PAH 7.7 μm, the best combination of filters is F560W, F770W, and either F1500W or F2100W, and the best for PAH 11.3 μm is F560W, F1000W, F1130W, and F1500W. The prescription with these combinations yields predicted flux densities that typically agree with values from spectral decomposition within ∼7% and ∼5% for PAH 7.7 and 11.3 μm, respectively.
KW - Interstellar dust
KW - Luminous infrared galaxies
KW - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105002330622&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/adb97f
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/adb97f
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 983
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
JF - The Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 79
ER -