Quiescent low-mass galaxies observed by JWST in the Epoch of Reionization

Abstract

The surprising JWST discovery of a quiescent, low-mass ($M_{\star }=10^{8.7}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) galaxy at redshift $z=7.3$ (JADES-GS-z7-01-QU) represents a unique opportunity to study the imprint of feedback processes on early galaxy evolution. We build a sample of 130 low-mass ($M_{\star }\lesssim 10^{9.5}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) galaxies from the SERRA cosmological zoom-in simulations, which show a feedback-regulated, bursty star formation history (SFH). The fraction of time spent in an active phase increases with the stellar mass from $f_{duty}\approx 0.6$ at $M_{\star }\approx 10^{7.5}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ to $\approx 0.99$ at $M_{\star }\ge 10^9{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, and it is in agreement with the value $f_{duty}\approx 0.75$ estimated for JADES-GS-z7-01-QU. On average, 30% of the galaxies are quiescent in the range $6<z<8.4$; they become the dominant population at $M_{\star }\lesssim 10^{8.3}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. However, none of these quiescent systems matches the Spectral Energy Distribution of JADES-GS-z7-01-QU, unless their SFH is artificially truncated a few Myr after the main star formation peak. As supernova feedback can only act on a longer timescale ($\gtrsim 30\mathrm{Myr}$), this implies that the observed abrupt quenching must be caused by a faster physical mechanism, such as radiation-driven winds.

ApJ Letters, 5 pages, 4 figures

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