The Dearth of z ∼ 10 Galaxies in All HST Legacy Fields—The Rapid Evolution of the Galaxy Population in the First 500 Myr

By P. Oesch, R. Bouwens, G. Illingworth, I. Labbé, M. Stefanon. 2017

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We present an analysis of all prime HST legacy fields spanning >800 arcmin2 in the search for z ∼ 10 galaxy candidates and the study of their UV luminosity function (LF). In particular, we present new z ∼ 10 candidates selected from the full Hubble Frontier Field (HFF) data set. Despite the addition of these new fields, we find a low abundance of z ∼ 10 candidates with only nine reliable sources identified in all prime HST data sets that include the HUDF09/12, the HUDF/XDF, all of the CANDELS fields, and now the HFF survey. Based on this comprehensive search, we find that the UV luminosity function decreases by one order of magnitude from z ∼ 8 to z ∼ 10 over a four-magnitude range. This also implies a decrease of the cosmic star formation rate density by an order of magnitude within 170 Myr from z ∼ 8 to z ∼ 10. We show that this accelerated evolution compared to lower redshift can entirely be explained by the fast build up of the dark matter halo mass function at z > 8. Consequently, the predicted UV LFs from several models of galaxy formation are in good agreement with this observed trend, even though the measured UV LF lies at the low end of model predictions. The difference is generally still consistent within the Poisson and cosmic variance uncertainties. We discuss the implications of these results in light of the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope mission, which is poised to find much larger samples of z ∼ 10 galaxies as well as their progenitors at less than 400 Myr after the big bang.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f3b9075bbc17c55720a11e8420b92c404de9a7d8

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Citations in the corpus

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, methodology): “…with HFF data, via gravitational lensing magnification (Atek et al. 2015, 2018; Ishigaki et al. 2015, 2018; Laporte et al. 2016; Livermore et al. 2017; Oesch et al. 2018), while the faint-end slopes and luminosity function turnovers are poorly constrained due to the limited statistics and lensing…”
Detection of the Far-infrared [O iii] and Dust Emission in a Galaxy at Redshift 8.312: Early Metal Enrichment in the Heart of the Reionization Era (2018, background): “Furthermore, based on samples of z8 LBGs, Oesch et al. (2018) reported a strong evolution of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function by one order of magnitude from z∼10 to ∼8, implying a rapid increase of the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) density by an order of magnitude within a very short time”
The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. I. Survey Design and Release Plans (2022, methodology): “Based on current estimates of the LF (Mason et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2015; Bouwens et al. 2015; Oesch et al. 2018), rest-frame UV/optical photometry and sizes for ∼100–200 LBGs at z 7 will be obtained with NIRCam in parallel mode.”
The Complete CEERS Early Universe Galaxy Sample: A Surprisingly Slow Evolution of the Space Density of Bright Galaxies at z ∼ 8.5–14.5 (2023, background): “…differed at z > 8, with some advocating for continued evolution with the same declining slope from lower redshifts ( e.g., Finkelstein 2016; McLeod et al. 2016 ) , while others claimed evidence of an accelerated decline toward higher redshifts ( e.g., Oesch et al. 2018; Bouwens et al. 2019 ) .”
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).”
Rapid Reionization by the Oligarchs: The Case for Massive, UV-bright, Star-forming Galaxies with High Escape Fractions (2019, background): “At z>8, where various measurements diverge, the model predicts a drop in ρSFR consistent with the latest HST analyses from Ishigaki et al. (2018) and Oesch et al. (2018).”
Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). V. Quasar Luminosity Function and Contribution to Cosmic Reionization at z = 6 (2018, background): “A large number of high-z galaxies and galaxy candidates have been identified up to z ∼ 10 and beyond, and the evolution of the galaxy luminosity function (LF) has been intensively studied (e.g., Bouwens et al. 2011, 2015; McLeod et al. 2016; Oesch et al. 2016, 2018; Ishigaki et al. 2018).”
Big Three Dragons: A z = 7.15 Lyman-break galaxy detected in [O iii] 88 μm, [C ii] 158 μm, and dust continuum with ALMA (2018, background): “While a large number of galaxy candidates are selected with a dropout technique at z >∼ 7 (e.g., Ellis et al. 2013; Bouwens et al. 2014; Oesch et al. 2018), the spectroscopic identifications at z >∼ 7 remain difficult (e.g., Stark et al. 2017 and references therein).”
Early Results from GLASS-JWST. III. Galaxy Candidates at z ∼9–15 (2022, methodology): “At z∼9-11 we expect 1.7+1.1−0.6 on the basis of the z∼9 and z∼10 UV LFs by Bouwens et al. (2021) and Oesch et al. (2018), respectively, and as many as 6.8 objects at z∼9-11 on the basis of the model by Mason et al. (2015).”
The evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ≃ 8 – 15 from deep JWST and ground-based near-infrared imaging (2022, background): “…with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer have revealed galaxy evolution extending out to redshifts 𝑧 ' 10 (e.g. Ellis et al. 2013; McLure et al. 2013; Oesch et al. 2014, 2018; Bowler et al. 2014, 2015, 2020; Finkelstein et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2015, 2016; Bouwens et al. 2021, 2022).”
CEERS Key Paper. I. An Early Look into the First 500 Myr of Galaxy Formation with JWST (2022, background): “…Galaxy survey (Trenti et al. 2011) have uncovered thousands of galaxies at z> 6 (e.g., Bouwens et al. 2015, 2022a; Finkelstein et al. 2015, 2022a; Ishigaki et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2016; Morishita et al. 2018; Oesch et al. 2018; Bridge et al. 2019; Rojas-Ruiz et al. 2020; Bagley et al. 2022a).”
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z ∼ 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging (2022, result): “Results in the literature were mixed, with some studies finding evidence for an accelerated decline in the SFRD (e.g., Oesch et al. 2018; Bouwens et al. 2021), while others found that observations supported a continued smooth decline (e.g., Coe et al. 2013; McLeod et al. 2016; Finkelstein & Bagley…”