A census and characterization of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon 3.3 micron emission band observed through James Webb Space Telescope Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopic surveys.

While our understanding of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) in the Interstellar Medium (ISM) has advanced significantly in the last decades thanks to continuous improvements in IR observational capabilities, significant gaps remain regarding the properties of PAH molecules be- yond the Local Universe. Prior to the start of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) operations, studies in the field of PAH astrophysics mainly relied on Spitzer Space Telescope observations. Spitzer could not spectroscopically observe the 3.3 μm PAH emission feature in the Local Uni- verse, and samples of PAH emitters at higher redshift could only include ultra luminous and luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRG/LIRGs) due to limitations in sensitivity. JWST’s pioneering instrumental capabilities now enable the study of PAH emission, both in the Local Universe and at higher redshifts, at a spatial resolution and sensitivity that were previously unattainable. Furthermore, its near infrared spectroscopic coverage enables sampling of the PAH 3.3 μm emis- sion feature up to z ∼ 0.5. Therefore, JWST observations can provide insight into a previously unexplored regime of PAH and ISM astrophysics, specifically that of normal galaxies outside the Local Universe. In this work, I present a catalog of PAH 3.3 μm emitters from JWST NIRCam Wide Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS). The included sources were obtained from the analysis of imaging and slitless spectroscopy in the F444W filter, which were acquired by the parallel observation programs POPPIES and SAPPHIRES. By construction, the catalog is composed of sources in the redshift range z ∼ 0.2 − 0.5, corresponding to the range for which the PAH 3.3 μm feature enters the F444W filter. The identification of the 3.3 μm feature was performed via visual inspection of POPPIES and SAPPHIRES extracted spectra. The F444W filter imaging was used for the morphological classification of all sources, finding a majority population of spiral galaxies, accompanied by a notably large number of spheroidals and lenticulars. The total number of identified PAH emitters is 68, 54 of which were sourced from POPPIES, while the remaining 14 from SAPPHIRES. Furthermore, [...]