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Title: Bursty star formation during the Cosmic Dawn driven by delayed stellar feedback
ABSTRACT

In recent years, several analytic models have demonstrated that simple assumptions about halo growth and feedback-regulated star formation can match the (limited) existing observational data on galaxies at $z \gtrsim6$. By extending such models, we demonstrate that imposing a time delay on stellar feedback (as inevitably occurs in the case of supernova explosions) induces burstiness in small galaxies. Although supernova progenitors have short lifetimes (∼5–30 Myr), the delay exceeds the dynamical time of galaxies at such high redshifts. As a result, star formation proceeds unimpeded by feedback for several cycles and ‘overshoots’ the expectations of feedback-regulated star formation models. We show that such overshoot is expected even in atomic cooling haloes, with halo masses up to ∼1010.5 M⊙ at z ≳ 6. However, these burst cycles damp out quickly in massive galaxies, because large haloes are more resistant to feedback so retain a continuous gas supply. Bursts in small galaxies – largely beyond the reach of existing observations – induce a scatter in the luminosity of these haloes (of ∼1 mag) and increase the time-averaged star formation efficiency by up to an order of magnitude. This kind of burstiness can have substantial effects on the earliest phases of star formation and reionization.

 
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Award ID(s):
1812458
NSF-PAR ID:
10363294
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume:
511
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0035-8711
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 3895-3909
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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