ΛCDM is still not broken: empirical constraints on the star formation efficiency at z ~ 12-30

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Yung, L. Y. Aaron, Somerville, Rachel S., Iyer, Kartheik G.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Somerville, Rachel S.
Iyer, Kartheik G.
author_facet Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Somerville, Rachel S.
Iyer, Kartheik G.
contents The James Webb Space Telescope continues to push back the redshift frontier to ever earlier cosmic epochs, with recent announcements of galaxy candidates at redshifts of $15 \lesssim z \lesssim 30$. We leverage the recent GUREFT suite of dissipationless $N$-body simulations, which were designed for interpreting observations in the high redshift Universe, and provide predictions of dark matter halo mass functions and halo growth rates for a state-of-the-art cosmology over a wide range of halo masses from $6 < z< 30$. We combine these results with an empirical framework that maps halo growth rate to galaxy star formation rate and then to rest-frame UV luminosity. We find that even if all of the photometrically selected $15 \lesssim z \lesssim 30$ galaxy candidates are real and actually at these extreme redshifts, there is no fundamental tension with $Λ$CDM, nor are exotic explanations required. With stellar light-to-mass ratios similar to those in well-studied lower redshift galaxies, our simple model can account for the observed extreme ultra-high redshift populations with star formation efficiencies that peak at values of 20-65 percent. Bursty star formation, or higher light-to-mass ratios such as are expected for lower metallicity stellar populations or a top-heavy Initial Mass Function, would result in even lower required star formation efficiencies, comparable to values predicted by high resolution numerical simulations of high-surface density star forming clouds.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_18618
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ΛCDM is still not broken: empirical constraints on the star formation efficiency at z ~ 12-30
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Somerville, Rachel S.
Iyer, Kartheik G.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
The James Webb Space Telescope continues to push back the redshift frontier to ever earlier cosmic epochs, with recent announcements of galaxy candidates at redshifts of $15 \lesssim z \lesssim 30$. We leverage the recent GUREFT suite of dissipationless $N$-body simulations, which were designed for interpreting observations in the high redshift Universe, and provide predictions of dark matter halo mass functions and halo growth rates for a state-of-the-art cosmology over a wide range of halo masses from $6 < z< 30$. We combine these results with an empirical framework that maps halo growth rate to galaxy star formation rate and then to rest-frame UV luminosity. We find that even if all of the photometrically selected $15 \lesssim z \lesssim 30$ galaxy candidates are real and actually at these extreme redshifts, there is no fundamental tension with $Λ$CDM, nor are exotic explanations required. With stellar light-to-mass ratios similar to those in well-studied lower redshift galaxies, our simple model can account for the observed extreme ultra-high redshift populations with star formation efficiencies that peak at values of 20-65 percent. Bursty star formation, or higher light-to-mass ratios such as are expected for lower metallicity stellar populations or a top-heavy Initial Mass Function, would result in even lower required star formation efficiencies, comparable to values predicted by high resolution numerical simulations of high-surface density star forming clouds.
title ΛCDM is still not broken: empirical constraints on the star formation efficiency at z ~ 12-30
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18618