Low-mass bursty galaxies in JADES efficiently produce ionizing photons and could represent the main drivers of reionization

We use deep imaging from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) to study the evolution of the ionizing photon production efficiency, ξ_ion. We estimate ξ_ion for a sample of 677 galaxies at z ~ 4-9 using NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) photometry. Specifically, combinations of the medium and wide bands F335M-F356W and F410M-F444W to constrain emission lines that trace ξ_ion: Hα and [O III]. Additionally, we use the spectral energy distribution fitting code PROSPECTOR to fit all available photometry and infer galaxy properties. The flux measurements obtained via photometry are consistent with FRESCO (First Reionisation Epoch Spectroscopic Complete Survey) and NIRSpec-derived fluxes. Moreover, the emission-line-inferred measurements are consistent with the PROSPECTOR estimates. We also confirm the observed ξ_ion trend with redshift and M_UV, and find: log ξ_ion(z, M_UV) = (0.05 ± 0.02)z + (0.11 ± 0.02)M_UV + (27.33 ± 0.37). We use PROSPECTOR to investigate correlations of ξ_ion with other galaxy properties. We see a clear correlation between ξ_ion and burstiness in the star formation history of galaxies, given by the ratio of recent to older star formation, where burstiness is more prevalent at lower stellar masses. We also convolve our ξ_ion relations with luminosity functions from the literature, and constant escape fractions of 10 per cent and 20 per cent, to place constraints on the cosmic ionizing photon budget. By combining our results, we find that if our sample is representative of the faint low-mass galaxy population, galaxies with bursty star formation are efficient enough in producing ionizing photons and could be responsible for the reionization of the Universe.