Resolving galaxy formation in the early Universe with BonFIRE and CampFIRE

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Samuel, Jenna, Boylan-Kolchin, Michael, Feldmann, Robert, Hopkins, Philip, Sun, Guochao, Gandhi, Pratik, Venditti, Alessandra, Shen, Xuejian, Wetzel, Andrew, Moreno, Jorge, Munoz, Julian, Cochrane, Rachel, Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre, Bromm, Volker, Finkelstein, Steven, Straight, Maria, Painter, Connor, Stern, Jonathan, Bullock, James
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Samuel, Jenna
Boylan-Kolchin, Michael
Feldmann, Robert
Hopkins, Philip
Sun, Guochao
Gandhi, Pratik
Venditti, Alessandra
Shen, Xuejian
Wetzel, Andrew
Moreno, Jorge
Munoz, Julian
Cochrane, Rachel
Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre
Bromm, Volker
Finkelstein, Steven
Straight, Maria
Painter, Connor
Stern, Jonathan
Bullock, James
author_facet Samuel, Jenna
Boylan-Kolchin, Michael
Feldmann, Robert
Hopkins, Philip
Sun, Guochao
Gandhi, Pratik
Venditti, Alessandra
Shen, Xuejian
Wetzel, Andrew
Moreno, Jorge
Munoz, Julian
Cochrane, Rachel
Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre
Bromm, Volker
Finkelstein, Steven
Straight, Maria
Painter, Connor
Stern, Jonathan
Bullock, James
contents The abundance and rapid growth of galaxies at cosmic dawn revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope challenges models of galaxy formation, motivating new simulations to uncover the processes driving early galaxy assembly. We present the first results from BonFIRE ($L\approx40$ cMpc, $m_{\rm baryon}\approx5\times10^4~\rm{M}_{\odot}$) and CampFIRE ($L\approx5$ cMpc, at both $m_{\rm baryon}\approx800~\rm{M}_{\odot}$ and $\approx6\times10^3~\rm{M}_{\odot}$), a suite of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of early galaxy formation ($z\gtrsim6$) from the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) project, using the FIRE-3 model. We use a resampling procedure to combine the large statistics of BonFIRE with the higher resolution of CampFIRE and robustly predict galaxy properties over a wide dynamic range ($M_{\star}\sim10^4-10^{10}~\rm{M}_{\odot}$). Galaxy formation in this suite emerges through clustered, bursty star formation, with halo-scale star formation efficiencies reaching $10-30\%$ in high-mass halos. A subset of low-mass halos also have surprisingly high efficiencies of $\gtrsim1\%$ and host ultra-compact galaxies with narrow age spreads. We predict galaxy UV luminosity functions at $9\lesssim~z\lesssim25$ in broad agreement with observations at $M_{\rm UV}\gtrsim-19$, with a faint-end turnover at $M_{\rm UV}\approx-14$, but we slightly overpredict the abundance of brighter galaxies. We find that UV luminosity variability in early galaxies is strongly mass-dependent, with halo-to-halo scatter dominating at low masses and contributing comparably to rapid temporal burstiness at $M_{\rm halo}\gtrsim10^{10}~\rm{M}_{\odot}$. We also present first results from a simple Pop~III model with a top-heavy IMF, demonstrating broad agreement with independent Pop~III predictions and observational constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_24104
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Resolving galaxy formation in the early Universe with BonFIRE and CampFIRE
Samuel, Jenna
Boylan-Kolchin, Michael
Feldmann, Robert
Hopkins, Philip
Sun, Guochao
Gandhi, Pratik
Venditti, Alessandra
Shen, Xuejian
Wetzel, Andrew
Moreno, Jorge
Munoz, Julian
Cochrane, Rachel
Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre
Bromm, Volker
Finkelstein, Steven
Straight, Maria
Painter, Connor
Stern, Jonathan
Bullock, James
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
The abundance and rapid growth of galaxies at cosmic dawn revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope challenges models of galaxy formation, motivating new simulations to uncover the processes driving early galaxy assembly. We present the first results from BonFIRE ($L\approx40$ cMpc, $m_{\rm baryon}\approx5\times10^4~\rm{M}_{\odot}$) and CampFIRE ($L\approx5$ cMpc, at both $m_{\rm baryon}\approx800~\rm{M}_{\odot}$ and $\approx6\times10^3~\rm{M}_{\odot}$), a suite of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of early galaxy formation ($z\gtrsim6$) from the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) project, using the FIRE-3 model. We use a resampling procedure to combine the large statistics of BonFIRE with the higher resolution of CampFIRE and robustly predict galaxy properties over a wide dynamic range ($M_{\star}\sim10^4-10^{10}~\rm{M}_{\odot}$). Galaxy formation in this suite emerges through clustered, bursty star formation, with halo-scale star formation efficiencies reaching $10-30\%$ in high-mass halos. A subset of low-mass halos also have surprisingly high efficiencies of $\gtrsim1\%$ and host ultra-compact galaxies with narrow age spreads. We predict galaxy UV luminosity functions at $9\lesssim~z\lesssim25$ in broad agreement with observations at $M_{\rm UV}\gtrsim-19$, with a faint-end turnover at $M_{\rm UV}\approx-14$, but we slightly overpredict the abundance of brighter galaxies. We find that UV luminosity variability in early galaxies is strongly mass-dependent, with halo-to-halo scatter dominating at low masses and contributing comparably to rapid temporal burstiness at $M_{\rm halo}\gtrsim10^{10}~\rm{M}_{\odot}$. We also present first results from a simple Pop~III model with a top-heavy IMF, demonstrating broad agreement with independent Pop~III predictions and observational constraints.
title Resolving galaxy formation in the early Universe with BonFIRE and CampFIRE
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24104