A Redshift-independent Efficiency Model: Star Formation and Stellar Masses in Dark Matter Halos at z ≳ 4

By S. Tacchella, S. Bose, C. Conroy, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Benjamin D. Johnson. Astrophysical Journal, 2018

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We explore the connection between the UV luminosity functions (LFs) of high-z galaxies and the distribution of stellar masses and star formation histories (SFHs) in their host dark matter halos. We provide a baseline for a redshift-independent star formation efficiency model to which observations and models can be compared. Our model assigns a star formation rate (SFR) to each dark matter halo based on the growth rate of the halo and a redshift-independent star formation efficiency. The dark matter halo accretion rate is obtained from a high-resolution N-body simulation in order to capture the stochasticity in accretion histories and to obtain spatial information for the distribution of galaxies. The halo mass dependence of the star formation efficiency is calibrated at z = 4 by requiring a match to the observed UV LF at this redshift. The model then correctly predicts the observed UV LF at z = 5–10. We present predictions for the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions, JWST number counts, and SFHs. In particular, we find a stellar-to-halo mass relation at z = 4–10 that scales with halo mass at Mh < 1011 M⊙ as M⋆ ∝ Mh2, with a normalization that is higher than the relation inferred at z = 0. The average SFRs increase as a function of time to z = 4, although there is significant scatter around the average: about 6% of the z = 4 galaxies show no significant mass growth. Using these SFHs, we present redshift-dependent UV-to-SFR conversion factors, mass return fractions, and mass-to-light ratios for different initial mass functions and metallicities, finding that current estimates of the cosmic SFR density at z ∼ 10 may be overestimated by ∼0.1–0.2 dex.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/135600e754650b5fdc97a08b3bac497e839eddbe

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Citations in the corpus

UniverseMachine: The correlation between galaxy growth and dark matter halo assembly from z = 0−10 (2018, methodology): “Coloured points without error bars show comparisons to median relations from Song et al. (2016) and Tacchella et al. (2018).”
A Comprehensive Study of Galaxies at z ∼ 9–16 Found in the Early JWST Data: Ultraviolet Luminosity Functions and Cosmic Star Formation History at the Pre-reionization Epoch (2022, background): “…redshift values of z∼ 2–7 given the dark matter halo mass (Harikane et al. 2018, 2022b), and the constant star formation efficiency model can reproduce the evolutional trend of the cosmic SFR density (e.g., Bouché et al. 2010; Mason et al. 2015; Harikane et al. 2018, 2022b; Tacchella et al. 2018).”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, background): “Bowler et al. 2015; Bouwens et al. 2015; Parsa et al. 2016; Finkelstein 2016; Mehta et al. 2017; Atek et al. 2015, 2018; Ishigaki et al. 2018) and theoretical studies (Jaacks et al. 2012; Tacchella et al. 2013; Mason et al. 2015; Wilkins et al. 2017; Tacchella et al. 2018; Yung et al. 2018).”
Rapid Reionization by the Oligarchs: The Case for Massive, UV-bright, Star-forming Galaxies with High Escape Fractions (2019, methodology): “The foundation of this work is the empirical model introduced in Tacchella et al. (2018).”
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z ∼ 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging (2022, background): “Simulations do make predictions for the evolution of the SFRD, but these predictions span a wide range (e.g., Gnedin 2016; Dayal & Ferrara 2018; Tacchella et al. 2018; Yung et al. 2019; Behroozi et al. 2020).”
Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at z ≈ 10–12 Revealed by JWST (2022, background): “This is a general trend of model predictions: a relatively rapid evolution of the LF at z > 10, driven by the underlying evolution of the dark matter halo mass function (see also Oesch et al. 2018; Tacchella et al. 2018; Bouwens et al. 2021).”