From FFB starbursts at cosmic dawn to quenching at cosmic morning: Hi-z galaxy bimodality

ABSTRACT We propose a mass-dependent bimodality in the early evolution of galaxies. The massive track connects the superbright galaxies at cosmic dawn ($z \!>\!8$) to the supermassive quiescent galaxies and black holes (BHs) at cosmic morning ($z \!\sim \!4 \!-\!7$). The dark-matter haloes $>\!10^{10.5}{\rm M}_\odot$ at $z\!=\!10$ are expected to undergo feedback-free starbursts (FFB) with high star formation efficiency in dense star clusters within compact galaxies. The less massive haloes avoid FFB and form stars gradually under stellar feedback, possibly leading to the peak star-forming galaxies at cosmic noon ($z \!\sim \!1\!-\!3$). The FFB and non-FFB haloes originate from $>\!4\sigma$ and $2\!-\!3\sigma$ density peaks, respectively. The post-FFB galaxies quench their star formation soon after the FFB phase and remain quiescent due to (a) gas depletion by the FFB starbursts and outflows, (b) compaction events driven by angular-momentum loss in colliding streams within the high-sigma-peak FFB haloes, (c) turbulent circumgalactic medium (CGM) that suppresses feeding by cold streams, and (d) BH feedback, being a key for complete quenching. BH feedback is enhanced by FFB-driven BH seeding and growth. It seems capable of disrupting the streams by generating CGM turbulence or photoheating, but this remains an open challenge. The cosmic-morning quiescent galaxies are expected to be massive, compact, showing signatures of compaction, outflows and active galactic nucleus (AGN), with a comoving number density $\sim \!10^{-5}\, {\rm Mpc}^{-3}$, comparable to the superbright galaxies at cosmic dawn and the AGN at cosmic morning. Their UV luminosity function is predicted to peak about $M_{\rm uv}\!\sim \!-22$ and contribute $\sim \! 10~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the galaxies there.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-10-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1692
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.46

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article

From FFB starbursts at cosmic dawn to quenching at cosmic morning: Hi-z galaxy bimodality

Omri Ginzburg, Zhiyuan Yao, Avishai Dekel, Dhruba Dutta Chowdhury et al.
3 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
3.46
article

From FFB starbursts at cosmic dawn to quenching at cosmic morning: Hi-z galaxy bimodality

Omri Ginzburg, Zhiyuan Yao, Avishai Dekel, Dhruba Dutta Chowdhury, Bocheng Zhu, Nir Mandelker, Sharon Lapiner, Zhaozhou Li
article en
3 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We propose a mass-dependent bimodality in the early evolution of galaxies. The massive track connects the superbright galaxies at cosmic dawn ($z \!>\!8$) to the supermassive quiescent galaxies and black holes (BHs) at cosmic morning ($z \!\sim \!4 \!-\!7$). The dark-matter haloes $>\!10^{10.5}{\rm M}_\odot$ at $z\!=\!10$ are expected to undergo feedback-free starbursts (FFB) with high star formation efficiency in dense star clusters within compact galaxies. The less massive haloes avoid FFB and form stars gradually under stellar feedback, possibly leading to the peak star-forming galaxies at cosmic noon ($z \!\sim \!1\!-\!3$). The FFB and non-FFB haloes originate from $>\!4\sigma$ and $2\!-\!3\sigma$ density peaks, respectively. The post-FFB galaxies quench their star formation soon after the FFB phase and remain quiescent due to (a) gas depletion by the FFB starbursts and outflows, (b) compaction events driven by angular-momentum loss in colliding streams within the high-sigma-peak FFB haloes, (c) turbulent circumgalactic medium (CGM) that suppresses feeding by cold streams, and (d) BH feedback, being a key for complete quenching. BH feedback is enhanced by FFB-driven BH seeding and growth. It seems capable of disrupting the streams by generating CGM turbulence or photoheating, but this remains an open challenge. The cosmic-morning quiescent galaxies are expected to be massive, compact, showing signatures of compaction, outflows and active galactic nucleus (AGN), with a comoving number density $\sim \!10^{-5}\, {\rm Mpc}^{-3}$, comparable to the superbright galaxies at cosmic dawn and the AGN at cosmic morning. Their UV luminosity function is predicted to peak about $M_{\rm uv}\!\sim \!-22$ and contribute $\sim \! 10~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the galaxies there.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 544(1)
Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL), FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
National Science Foundation, European Commission, Israel Science Foundation
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
3.46
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