Cosmic stillness: high quiescent galaxy fractions across upper mass scales in the early Universe to <i>z</i> = 7 with <i>JWST</i>
ABSTRACT We present a detailed investigation into the abundance and morphology of high-redshift quenched galaxies at $3 &lt; z &lt; 7$ using James Webb Space Telescope data in the NEP, CEERS, and JADES fields. Within these fields, we identify 90 candidate passive galaxies using specific star formation rates modelled with the BAGPIPES spectral energy distribution fitting code, which is more effective at identifying recently quenched systems than the classical UVJ method, which specializes in quenched objects $&gt;$1 Gyr. With this sample of galaxies, we find number densities broadly consistent with other works and a rapidly evolving passive fraction of high-mass galaxies ($\log _{10}{(M_{\star }/{\rm M}_{\odot })} &gt;$ 9.5) in the range $3 &lt; z &lt; 5$. We find that the fraction of galaxies with low star formation rates and mass 9.5 $ &lt; \log _{10}{(M_{\star }/{\rm M}_{\odot })} &lt;$ 10.5 decreases from $\sim$25 per cent at $3 &lt; z &lt; 4$ to $\sim$2 per cent at $5 &lt; z &lt; 7$. Our passive sample of galaxies is shown to exhibit more compact light profiles compared to star-forming counterparts and some exhibit traces of active galactic nucleus activity through detections in either the X-ray or radio. At the highest redshifts ($z &gt; 6.5$) passive selections start to include examples of ‘little red dots’, which complicates any conclusions until their nature is better understood.
Authors
- Jake Summers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7265-7920)
- Rogier A. Windhorst (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8156-6281)
- Rolf A. Jansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1268-5230)
- Norman A. Grogin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9440-8872)
- Nimish P. Hathi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6145-5090)
- Nathan Adams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4875-6272)
- Russell E. Ryan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-1588)
- Madeline A. Marshall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6434-7845)
- Thomas Harvey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4130-636X)
- Christopher J. Conselice (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1949-7638)
- Seth H. Cohen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3329-1337)
- Anton M. Koekemoer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6610-2048)
- Dan Coe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7410-7669)
- Jordan C. J. D’Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9816-1931)
- Simon P. Driver (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9491-7327)
- Haojing Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7592-7714)
- Brenda Frye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1625-8009)
- James Trussler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9081-2111)
- Nor Pirzkal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3382-5941)
- Duncan Austin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0519-9445)
- Christopher N. A. Willmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9262-9997)
- A. S. G. Robotham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0429-3579)
- Lewi Westcott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8642-5275)
- Leonardo Ferreira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8919-079X)
- Rafael Ortiz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6150-833X)
- Honor Harris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0817-6419)
- Neva Dobric
Institutions
- Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of Louisville (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- European Space Agency (FR)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- ASTRO-3D (AU)
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU)
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU)
- Arizona State University (US)
- University of Baltimore (US)
- University of Missouri (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2025-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1916
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.62
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Science and Technology Facilities Council