A stellar bar hidden in an extreme gas-rich disk galaxy at z=4.055

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Boogaard, Leindert A., Costantin, Luca, Tepper-García, Thor, Bland-Hawthorn, Joss, Hodge, Jacqueline A., Liao, Cheng-Lin, Hamed, Mahmoud, Colina, Luis, Walter, Fabian, Agertz, Oscar, Bik, Arjan, Gómez, Alejandro Crespo, Daddi, Emanuele, Magdis, Georgios E., Pérez-González, Pablo G., Übler, Hannah, Weiss, Axel
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Boogaard, Leindert A.
Costantin, Luca
Tepper-García, Thor
Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
Hodge, Jacqueline A.
Liao, Cheng-Lin
Hamed, Mahmoud
Colina, Luis
Walter, Fabian
Agertz, Oscar
Bik, Arjan
Gómez, Alejandro Crespo
Daddi, Emanuele
Magdis, Georgios E.
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Übler, Hannah
Weiss, Axel
author_facet Boogaard, Leindert A.
Costantin, Luca
Tepper-García, Thor
Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
Hodge, Jacqueline A.
Liao, Cheng-Lin
Hamed, Mahmoud
Colina, Luis
Walter, Fabian
Agertz, Oscar
Bik, Arjan
Gómez, Alejandro Crespo
Daddi, Emanuele
Magdis, Georgios E.
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Übler, Hannah
Weiss, Axel
contents The classical picture for the formation of stellar bars -- key dynamical drivers of the evolution of galaxies -- is through secular evolution of instability in gas poor, stellar-dominated disks. The detection with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of stellar bars and spiral arms in galaxies at early cosmic times has thus challenged LambdaCDM-based expectations, which recent studies reconcile by suggesting that these galaxies are baryon-dominated and have already consumed most of their gas. Yet, a paradox arises, as early galaxies are expected to be increasingly rich in gas, which is generally considered to prevent or slow down stellar bar formation. Here, we show the detection of a stellar bar in GN20, a gas-rich star-forming disk galaxy at a redshift of z=4.055, only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. Simultaneous observations of the stars, gas, and dust reveal that GN20 is indeed baryon-dominated (over dark matter; 70+/-30%), but the baryonic mass is largely in the form of gas (75+/-25%). This discovery demonstrates that gas-rich disks do support rapid stellar bar formation in the early Universe, motivating a new theoretical perspective on bar formation in gas-rich systems, and providing a potential new mechanism for very early galaxy assembly and quenching.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_15273
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A stellar bar hidden in an extreme gas-rich disk galaxy at z=4.055
Boogaard, Leindert A.
Costantin, Luca
Tepper-García, Thor
Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
Hodge, Jacqueline A.
Liao, Cheng-Lin
Hamed, Mahmoud
Colina, Luis
Walter, Fabian
Agertz, Oscar
Bik, Arjan
Gómez, Alejandro Crespo
Daddi, Emanuele
Magdis, Georgios E.
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
Übler, Hannah
Weiss, Axel
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
The classical picture for the formation of stellar bars -- key dynamical drivers of the evolution of galaxies -- is through secular evolution of instability in gas poor, stellar-dominated disks. The detection with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of stellar bars and spiral arms in galaxies at early cosmic times has thus challenged LambdaCDM-based expectations, which recent studies reconcile by suggesting that these galaxies are baryon-dominated and have already consumed most of their gas. Yet, a paradox arises, as early galaxies are expected to be increasingly rich in gas, which is generally considered to prevent or slow down stellar bar formation. Here, we show the detection of a stellar bar in GN20, a gas-rich star-forming disk galaxy at a redshift of z=4.055, only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. Simultaneous observations of the stars, gas, and dust reveal that GN20 is indeed baryon-dominated (over dark matter; 70+/-30%), but the baryonic mass is largely in the form of gas (75+/-25%). This discovery demonstrates that gas-rich disks do support rapid stellar bar formation in the early Universe, motivating a new theoretical perspective on bar formation in gas-rich systems, and providing a potential new mechanism for very early galaxy assembly and quenching.
title A stellar bar hidden in an extreme gas-rich disk galaxy at z=4.055
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15273