New constraints on stellar feedback through [O III] emission: interpreting ALMA and JWST observations with SPICE simulations

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Autori principali: Casavecchia, Benedetta, Bhagwat, Aniket, Ciardi, Benedetta, Peroux, Celine, Costa, Tiago
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Casavecchia, Benedetta
Bhagwat, Aniket
Ciardi, Benedetta
Peroux, Celine
Costa, Tiago
author_facet Casavecchia, Benedetta
Bhagwat, Aniket
Ciardi, Benedetta
Peroux, Celine
Costa, Tiago
contents ALMA and JWST have recently detected emission lines from the interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization, reaching redshifts up to z = 14. Among these, [OIII] lines provide a powerful diagnostic of metal enrichment, gas ionization, and the impact of stellar feedback in galaxies at z > 6. Modeling this emission in cosmological simulations is challenging due to the wide range of spatial scales and physical processes involved. To address this, we have developed a post-processing pipeline that implements a sub-grid model for [OIII] line emission within the SPICE radiation-hydrodynamical simulations. These simulations explore three supernova feedback prescriptions: bursty-sn, smooth-sn, and the hypernova-based hyper-sn. We investigate how these feedback models affect metal enrichment, the neutral gas fraction, and the size and morphology of ionized halos traced by [OIII] emission in both the optical and far-infrared. We find that [OIII] emission predominantly originates from gas that is both shock-heated and radiatively ionized. We also examine the mass-metallicity relation and the correlation between neutral gas fraction and [OIII] luminosity. Our results show that the bursty-sn model efficiently ionizes gas but enriches galaxies less effectively by z = 5, leading to fewer bright [OIII] emitters compared to the smooth-sn model. Both bursty-sn and hyper-sn produce suppressed luminosity functions. Spatially resolved [OIII] emission further indicates that smooth-sn tends to generate more compact galaxies and slightly higher V/σ values, although there is significant overlap between models. Overall, our findings demonstrate that [OIII] emission is a sensitive tracer of stellar feedback at high redshift and highlight the importance of observations probing fainter luminosities, where feedback effects are strongest.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_18730
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New constraints on stellar feedback through [O III] emission: interpreting ALMA and JWST observations with SPICE simulations
Casavecchia, Benedetta
Bhagwat, Aniket
Ciardi, Benedetta
Peroux, Celine
Costa, Tiago
Astrophysics of Galaxies
ALMA and JWST have recently detected emission lines from the interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization, reaching redshifts up to z = 14. Among these, [OIII] lines provide a powerful diagnostic of metal enrichment, gas ionization, and the impact of stellar feedback in galaxies at z > 6. Modeling this emission in cosmological simulations is challenging due to the wide range of spatial scales and physical processes involved. To address this, we have developed a post-processing pipeline that implements a sub-grid model for [OIII] line emission within the SPICE radiation-hydrodynamical simulations. These simulations explore three supernova feedback prescriptions: bursty-sn, smooth-sn, and the hypernova-based hyper-sn. We investigate how these feedback models affect metal enrichment, the neutral gas fraction, and the size and morphology of ionized halos traced by [OIII] emission in both the optical and far-infrared. We find that [OIII] emission predominantly originates from gas that is both shock-heated and radiatively ionized. We also examine the mass-metallicity relation and the correlation between neutral gas fraction and [OIII] luminosity. Our results show that the bursty-sn model efficiently ionizes gas but enriches galaxies less effectively by z = 5, leading to fewer bright [OIII] emitters compared to the smooth-sn model. Both bursty-sn and hyper-sn produce suppressed luminosity functions. Spatially resolved [OIII] emission further indicates that smooth-sn tends to generate more compact galaxies and slightly higher V/σ values, although there is significant overlap between models. Overall, our findings demonstrate that [OIII] emission is a sensitive tracer of stellar feedback at high redshift and highlight the importance of observations probing fainter luminosities, where feedback effects are strongest.
title New constraints on stellar feedback through [O III] emission: interpreting ALMA and JWST observations with SPICE simulations
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18730