February
2026
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2026ApJ...997..319T
Authors
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Tsujita, Akiyoshi
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Fujimoto, Seiji
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Faisst, Andreas
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Boquien, Médéric
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Li, Juno
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Ferrara, Andrea
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Battisti, Andrew J.
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Dam, Poulomi
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Aravena, Manuel
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Béthermin, Matthieu
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Casey, Caitlin M.
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Cooper, Olivia R.
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Finkelstein, Steven L.
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Ginolfi, Michele
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Gómez-Espinoza, Diego A.
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Hadi, Ali
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Herrera-Camus, Rodrigo
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Ibar, Edo
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Inami, Hanae
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Jones, Gareth C.
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Koekemoer, Anton M.
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Kohno, Kotaro
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Lemaux, Brian C.
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Liu, Zhaoxuan
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de Looze, Ilse
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Mitsuhashi, Ikki
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Mobasher, Bahram
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Molina, Juan
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Nanni, Ambra
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Pozzi, Francesca
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Reddy, Naveen A.
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Relano, Monica
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Rodighiero, Giulia
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Romano, Michael
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Sanders, David B.
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Sawant, Prasad
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Solimano, Manuel
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Sommovigo, Laura
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Spilker, Justin
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Tadaki, Ken-Ichi
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Vallini, Livia
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Villanueva, Vicente
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Wang, Wuji
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Zamorani, Giovanni
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Alpine+Cristal Collaborations
Abstract
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Characterizing dust attenuation is crucial for revealing the intrinsic physical properties of galaxies. We present an analysis of dust attenuation in 18 spectroscopically confirmed star-forming main-sequence galaxies at z = 4.4−5.7 observed with JWST/NIRSpec IFU and NIRCam, selected from the ALPINE and CRISTAL ALMA large programs. We fit the emission-line fluxes from NIRSpec and the broadband photometry from NIRCam with PROSPECTOR, using both spatially integrated emission and ∼0.6 kpc pixel-by-pixel measurements. We derive the stellar-to-nebular dust attenuation ratio (f = E(B − V)star/E(B − V)neb) from the SED fits and the Balmer decrement with Hα and Hβ. Although individual galaxies show large scatter, the best-fit value is f=0.51−0.03+0.04 , slightly higher than that measured for local starburst galaxies. We find weak correlations of f with galaxy properties, increasing with higher specific star formation rates, younger stellar ages, and more recent star formation. For the range of E(B − V)star = 0.009−0.15 mag for in our sample, assuming f = 1 (often adopted in high-redshift studies) instead of f = 0.51 leads to the underestimation of line luminosities and ionizing photon production efficiency ξion by ∼3%−36% and ∼4%−46%, respectively. Finally, total stellar masses estimated from spatially integrated SED fits with delayed-τ star formation histories are systematically smaller than the sums of pixel-by-pixel SED fits by a median of ∼0.26 dex, likely because the integrated fits are biased toward luminous young stellar populations.
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