Accelerated formation of ultra-massive galaxies in the first billion years

Mengyuan Xiao (), Pascal A. Oesch, David Elbaz, Longji Bing, Erica J. Nelson, Andrea Weibel, Garth D. Illingworth, Pieter Dokkum, Rohan P. Naidu, Emanuele Daddi, Rychard J. Bouwens, Jorryt Matthee, Stijn Wuyts, John Chisholm, Gabriel Brammer, Mark Dickinson, Benjamin Magnelli, Lucas Leroy, Daniel Schaerer, Thomas Herard-Demanche, Seunghwan Lim, Laia Barrufet, Ryan Endsley, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Carlos Gómez-Guijarro, Rashmi Gottumukkala, Ivo Labbé, Dan Magee, Danilo Marchesini, Michael Maseda, Yuxiang Qin, Naveen A. Reddy, Alice Shapley, Irene Shivaei, Marko Shuntov, Mauro Stefanon, Katherine E. Whitaker and J. Stuart B. Wyithe
Additional contact information
Mengyuan Xiao: University of Geneva
Pascal A. Oesch: University of Geneva
David Elbaz: AIM
Longji Bing: University of Sussex
Erica J. Nelson: University of Colorado
Andrea Weibel: University of Geneva
Garth D. Illingworth: University of California Santa Cruz
Pieter Dokkum: Yale University
Rohan P. Naidu: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Emanuele Daddi: AIM
Rychard J. Bouwens: Leiden University
Jorryt Matthee: ETH Zürich
Stijn Wuyts: University of Bath
John Chisholm: The University of Texas at Austin
Gabriel Brammer: University of Copenhagen
Mark Dickinson: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory
Benjamin Magnelli: AIM
Lucas Leroy: AIM
Daniel Schaerer: University of Geneva
Thomas Herard-Demanche: Leiden University
Seunghwan Lim: University of Cambridge
Laia Barrufet: University of Geneva
Ryan Endsley: The University of Texas at Austin
Yoshinobu Fudamoto: Waseda University
Carlos Gómez-Guijarro: AIM
Rashmi Gottumukkala: University of Geneva
Ivo Labbé: Swinburne University of Technology
Dan Magee: University of California Santa Cruz
Danilo Marchesini: Tufts University
Michael Maseda: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Yuxiang Qin: University of Melbourne
Naveen A. Reddy: University of California Riverside
Alice Shapley: University of California Los Angeles
Irene Shivaei: University of Arizona
Marko Shuntov: University of Copenhagen
Mauro Stefanon: Universitat de València
Katherine E. Whitaker: University of Copenhagen
J. Stuart B. Wyithe: University of Melbourne

Nature, 2024, vol. 635, issue 8038, 311-315

Abstract: Abstract Recent James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have revealed an unexpected abundance of massive-galaxy candidates in the early Universe, extending further in redshift and to lower luminosity than what had previously been found by submillimetre surveys1–6. These JWST candidates have been interpreted as challenging the Λ cold dark-matter cosmology (where Λ is the cosmological constant)7–9, but, so far, these studies have mostly relied on only rest-frame ultraviolet data and have lacked spectroscopic confirmation of their redshifts10–16. Here we report a systematic study of 36 massive dust-obscured galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts between 5 and 9 from the JWST FRESCO survey. We find no tension with the Λ cold dark-matter model in our sample. However, three ultra-massive galaxies (logM★/M⊙ ≳ 11.0, where M★ is the stellar mass and M⊙ is the mass of the Sun) require an exceptional fraction of 50 per cent of baryons converted into stars—two to three times higher than the most efficient galaxies at later epochs. The contribution from an active galactic nucleus is unlikely because of their extended emission. Ultra-massive galaxies account for as much as 17 per cent of the total cosmic star-formation-rate density17 at redshifts between about five and six.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08094-5

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