The Spectral Evolution of the First Galaxies. III. Simulated James Webb Space Telescope Spectra of Reionization-epoch Galaxies with Lyman-continuum Leakage.

Using four different suites of cosmological simulations, we generate synthetic spectra for galaxies with different Lyman-continuum escape fractions (f_esc) at redshifts –9, in the rest-frame wavelength range relevant for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRSpec instrument. By investigating the effects of realistic star formation histories and metallicity distributions on the EW(Hβ)–β diagram (previously proposed as a tool for identifying galaxies with very high f_esc), we find that neither of these effects are likely to jeopardize the identification of galaxies with extreme Lyman-continuum leakage. Based on our models, we expect that essentially all galaxies that exhibit rest-frame Å to have . Incorrect assumptions concerning the ionizing fluxes of stellar populations or the dust properties of galaxies can in principle bias the selection, but substantial model deficiencies of this type should at the same time be evident from offsets in the observed distribution of galaxies in the EW(Hβ)–β diagram compared to the simulated distribution. Such offsets would thereby allow JWST/NIRSpec measurements of these observables to serve as input for further model refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]