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One of the most fundamental baryonic matter components of galaxies is the neutral atomic hydrogen (Hi). At low redshifts, this component can be traced directly through the 21 cm transition, but to infer the Higas content of the most distant galaxies, a viable tracer is needed. We here investigate the fidelity of the fine-structure transition of the (²P_3/2−²P_1/3) transition of singly ionized carbon Ciiat 158μm as a proxy for Hiin a set simulated galaxies atz≈ 6, following the work by Heintz et al. We select 11,125 star-forming galaxies from thesimbasimulations, with far-infrared line emissions postprocessed and modeled within the Sigameframework. We find a strong connection between Ciiand Hi, with the relation between this Cii-to-Hirelation (β_[CII]) being anticorrelated with the gas-phase metallicity of the simulated galaxies. We further use these simulations to make predictions for the total baryonic matter content of galaxies atz≈ 6, and specifically the Higas mass fraction. We find mean values ofM_{H I}/M_⋆= 1.4 andM_{H I}/M_bar,tot= 0.45. These results provide strong evidence for Hibeing the dominant baryonic matter component by mass in galaxies atz≈ 6.

 

Over the past decade, rest-frame color–color diagrams have become popular tools for selecting quiescent galaxies at high redshift, breaking the color degeneracy between quiescent and dust-reddened star-forming galaxies. In this work, we study one such color–color selection tool—the rest-frameU−VversusV−Jdiagram—by employing mock observations of cosmological galaxy formation simulations. In particular, we conduct numerical experiments assessing both trends in galaxy properties inUVJspace and the color–color evolution of massive galaxies as they quench at redshiftsz∼ 1–2. We find that our models broadly reproduce the observedUVJdiagram atz= 1–2, including (for the first time in a cosmological simulation) reproducing the population of extremely dust-reddened galaxies in the top right of theUVJdiagram. However, our models primarily populate this region with low-mass galaxies and do not produce as clear a bimodality between star-forming and quiescent galaxies as is seen in observations. The former issue is due to an excess of dust in low-mass galaxies and relatively gray attenuation curves in high-mass galaxies, while the latter is due to the overpopulation of the green valley insimba. When investigating the time evolution of galaxies on theUVJdiagram, we find that the quenching pathway on theUVJdiagram is independent of the quenching timescale, and instead dependent primarily on the average specific star formation rate in the 1 Gyr prior to the onset of quenching. Our results support the interpretation of different quenching pathways as corresponding to the divergent evolution of post-starburst and green valley galaxies.

 

We present spatially resolved morphological properties of [CII] 158μm, [OIII] 88μm, dust, and rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) continuum emission for A1689-zD1, a strongly lensed, sub-L* galaxy atz= 7.13, by utilizing deep Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. While the [OIII] line and UV continuum are compact, the [CII] line is extended up to a radius ofr∼ 12 kpc. Using multi-band rest-frame far-infrared continuum data ranging from 52 to 400μm, we find an average dust temperature and emissivity index of$T_{\mathrm{dust}}={41}_{-14}^{+17}$K and$\beta ={1.7}_{-0.7}^{+1.1}$, respectively, across the galaxy. We find slight differences in the dust continuum profiles at different wavelengths, which may indicate that the dust temperature decreases with distance. We map the star formation rate (SFR) via IR and UV luminosities and determine a total SFR of 37 ± 1M_⊙yr⁻¹with an obscured fraction of 87%. While the [OIII] line is a good tracer of the SFR, the [CII] line shows deviation from the localL_[CII]-SFR relations in the outskirts of the galaxy. Finally, we observe a clear difference in the line profile between [CII] and [OIII], with significant residuals (∼5σ) in the [OIII] line spectrum after subtracting a single Gaussian model. This suggests a possible origin of the extended [CII] structure from the cooling of hot ionized outflows. The extended [CII] and high-velocity [OIII] emission may both contribute in part to the highL_[OIII]/L_[CII]ratios recently reported inz> 6 galaxies.

 

We investigate the fine-structure [Cii] line at 158μm as a molecular gas tracer by analyzing the relationship between molecular gas mass (M_mol) and [Cii] line luminosity (L_[CII]) in 11,125z≃ 6 star-forming, main-sequence galaxies from thesimbasimulations, with line emission modeled by the Simulator of Galaxy Millimeter/Submillimeter Emission. Though most (∼50%–100%) of the gas mass in our simulations is ionized, the bulk (>50%) of the [Cii] emission comes from the molecular phase. We find a sublinear (slope 0.78 ± 0.01)$\log L_{[\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}]}–\log M_{\mathrm{mol}}$relation, in contrast with the linear relation derived from observational samples of more massive, metal-rich galaxies atz≲ 6. We derive a median [Cii]-to-M_molconversion factor ofα_[CII]≃ 18M_⊙/L_⊙. This is lower than the average value of ≃30M_⊙/L_⊙derived from observations, which we attribute to lower gas-phase metallicities in our simulations. Thus, a lower, luminosity-dependent conversion factor must be applied when inferring molecular gas masses from [Cii] observations of low-mass galaxies. For our simulations, [Cii] is a better tracer of the molecular gas than COJ= 1–0, especially at the lowest metallicities, where much of the gas isCO-dark. We find thatL_[CII]is more tightly correlated withM_molthan with star formation rate (SFR), and both the$\log L_{[\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}]}–\log M_{\mathrm{mol}}$and$\log L_{[\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}]}–\log \mathrm{SFR}$relations arise from the Kennicutt–Schmidt relation. Our findings suggest thatL_[CII]is a promising tracer of the molecular gas at the earliest cosmic epochs.

 

Abstract One of the primary goals for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope is to observe the first galaxies. Predictions for planned and proposed surveys have typically focused on average galaxy counts, assuming a random distribution of galaxies across the observed field. The first and most-massive galaxies, however, are expected to be tightly clustered, an effect known as cosmic variance. We show that cosmic variance is likely to be the dominant contribution to uncertainty for high-redshift mass and luminosity functions, and that median high-redshift and high-mass galaxy counts for planned observations lie significantly below average counts. Several different strategies are considered for improving our understanding of the first galaxies, including adding depth, area, and independent pointings. Adding independent pointings is shown to be the most efficient both for discovering the single highest-redshift galaxy and also for constraining mass and luminosity functions.