With JWST, new opportunities to study the evolution of galaxies in the early Universe are emerging. Spitzer constraints on rest-optical properties of z ≳ 7 galaxies demonstrated the power of using galaxy stellar masses and star formation histories (SFHs) to indirectly infer the cosmic star formation history. However, only the brightest individual z ≳ 8 objects could be detected with Spitzer, making it difficult to robustly constrain activity at z ≳ 10. Here, we leverage the greatly improved rest-optical sensitivity of JWST at z ≳ 8 to constrain the ages of seven UV-bright ($M_{\rm uv}\lesssim -19.5$) galaxies selected to lie at z ∼ 8.5–11, then investigate implications for z ≳ 15 star formation. We infer the properties of individual objects with two spectral energy distribution modelling codes, then infer a distribution of ages for bright z ∼ 8.5–11 galaxies. We find a median age of ∼20 Myr, younger than that inferred at z ∼ 7 with a similar analysis, consistent with an evolution towards larger specific star formation rates at early times. The age distribution suggests that only ∼3 per cent of bright z ∼ 8.5–11 galaxies would be similarly luminous at z ≳ 15, implying that the number density of bright galaxies declines by at least an order of magnitude between z ∼ 8.5–11 and $z \sim 15$. This evolution is challenging to reconcile with some early JWST results suggesting the abundance of bright galaxies does not significantly decrease towards very early times, but we suggest this tension may be eased if young stellar populations form on top of older stellar components, or if bright z ∼ 15 galaxies are observed during a burst of star formation.
Early observations with JWST indicate an overabundance of bright galaxies at redshifts z ≳ 10 relative to Hubble-calibrated model predictions. More puzzling still is the apparent lack of evolution in the abundance of such objects between z ∼ 9 and the highest redshifts yet probed, z ∼ 13–17. In this study, we first show that, despite a poor match with JWST luminosity functions (LFs), semi-empirical models calibrated to rest-ultraviolet LFs and colours at 4 ≲ z ≲ 8 are largely consistent with constraints on the properties of individual JWST galaxies, including their stellar masses, ages, and spectral slopes. We then show that order-of-magnitude scatter in the star formation rate of galaxies (at fixed halo mass) can indeed boost the abundance of bright galaxies, provided that star formation is more efficient than expected in low-mass haloes. However, this solution to the abundance problem introduces tension elsewhere: because it relies on the upscattering of low-mass haloes into bright magnitude bins, one expects typical ages, masses, and spectral slopes to be much lower than constraints from galaxies observed thus far. This tension can be alleviated by non-negligible reddening, suggesting that – if the first batch of photometrically selected candidates are confirmed – star formation and dust production could be more efficient than expected in galaxies at z ≳ 10.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1812458
- PAR ID:
- 10486647
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 519
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 843 to 853
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3578
