2025ApJ...980..138H -
Astrophys. J., 980, 138 (2025/February-2)
JWST, ALMA, and Keck Spectroscopic Constraints on the UV Luminosity Functions at z ∼ 7-14: Clumpiness and Compactness of the Brightest Galaxies in the Early Universe.
HARIKANE Y., INOUE A.K., ELLIS R.S., OUCHI M., NAKAZATO Y., YOSHIDA N., ONO Y., SUN F., SATO R.A., FERRAMI G., FUJIMOTO S., KASHIKAWA N., McLEOD D.J., PEREZ-GONZALEZ P.G., SAWICKI M., SUGAHARA Y., XU Y., YAMANAKA S., CARNALL A.C., CULLEN F., DUNLOP J.S., EGAMI E., GROGIN N., ISOBE Y., KOEKEMOER A.M., LAPORTE N., LEE C.-H., MAGEE D., MATSUO H., MATSUOKA Y., MAWATARI K., NAKAJIMA K., NAKANE M., TAMURA Y., UMEDA H. and YANAGISAWA H.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present the number densities and physical properties of the bright galaxies spectroscopically confirmed at z ∼ 7-14. Our sample is composed of 60 galaxies at zspec ∼ 7-14, including recently confirmed galaxies at zspec = 12.34-14.18 with JWST, as well as new confirmations at zspec = 6.583-7.643 with -24 < MUV < -21 mag using ALMA and Keck. Our JWST/NIRSpec observations have also revealed that very bright galaxy candidates at z ∼ 10-13 identified from ground-based telescope images before JWST are passive galaxies at z ∼ 3-4, emphasizing the necessity of strict screening and spectroscopy in the selection of the brightest galaxies at z > 10. The UV luminosity functions derived from these spectroscopic results are consistent with a double power-law function, showing tensions with theoretical models at the bright end. To understand the origin of the overabundance of bright galaxies, we investigate their morphologies using JWST/NIRCam high-resolution images obtained in various surveys, including PRIMER and COSMOS-Web. We find that ∼70% of the bright galaxies at z ∼ 7 exhibit clumpy morphologies with multiple subcomponents, suggesting merger-induced starburst activity, which is consistent with SED fitting results showing bursty star formation histories. At z ≳ 10, bright galaxies are classified into two types of galaxies: extended ones with weak high-ionization emission lines, and compact ones with strong high-ionization lines including N IV]λ1486, indicating that at least two different processes (e.g., merger-induced starburst and compact star formation/AGN) are shaping the physical properties of the brightest galaxies at z ≳ 10 and are responsible for their overabundance.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Galaxy formation - Galaxy evolution - High-redshift galaxies
Status at CDS
:
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Simbad objects:
68
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