The JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey: Discovery of an Extreme Galaxy Overdensity at z = 5.4 with JWST/NIRCam in GOODS-S

We report the discovery of an extreme galaxy overdensity at z = 5.4 in the GOODS-S field using JWST/NIRCam imaging from JADES and JEMS alongside JWST/NIRCam wide field slitless spectroscopy from FRESCO. We identified potential members of the overdensity using HST+JWST photometry spanning λ = 0.4−5.0 μm. These data provide accurate and well-constrained photometric redshifts down to m = 29 - 30 mag. We subsequently confirmed N = 96 potential members of the overdensity using JWST slitless spectroscopy over λ = 3.9 - 5.0 µm through a targeted line search for Hα around the best-fit photometric redshift. We verified that N = 53 galaxies reside in the field at z = 5.2 - 5.5 while N = 43 galaxies reside in an overdensity at z = 5.4 around 10 - 12 times that of a random volume. Stellar populations for these galaxies were inferred from the photometry and used to construct the star-forming main sequence, where protocluster members appeared more massive and exhibited earlier star formation (and thus older stellar populations) when compared to their field galaxy counterparts. We estimate the total halo mass of this large-scale structure to be 13.0 < log₁₀ (M_halo/M_star) < 13.5 using an empirical stellar mass to halo mass relation, although this is likely an underestimate as a result of incompleteness. Our discovery demonstrates the power of JWST at constraining dark matter halo assembly and galaxy formation at very early cosmic times.