2024ApJ...975..114R

Observational advances have allowed the detection of galaxies, protoclusters, and galaxy clusters at higher and higher redshifts, opening a new view into extreme galaxy evolution. I present an argument that the high-redshift, massive galaxies discovered over the last decade are really the most massive galaxies within protocluster cores of galaxy clusters at z ∼ 2, and that they are the partial descendants of same galaxies discovered by JWST at z ∼ 9. To that end, I present The Manhattan Suite, a set of 100 high resolution zoom-in simulations of the most massive galaxy clusters, out to 9 R_vir, selected at z = 2 from a (1.5 cGpc)³ parent volume, and simulated using the SIMBA model. Unlike other cluster suites, my selection at z = 2 ensures that these systems are biased in a similar fashion to observations, in that they should be the brightest and the most massive by construction at z ≳ 2. I show that my sample is able to reproduce extremely star-bursting protoclusters such as SPT2349-56, high-redshift galaxy clusters XLSSC122 and JKCS041, and the wealth of massive (sometimes quenched) galaxies at z ≳ 3 and up to z ∼ 9. I argue that these systems are intimately linked, and represent the same evolutionary history.