A massive galaxy that formed its stars at $z\sim 11$

Abstract

The formation of galaxies by gradual hierarchical co-assembly of baryons and cold dark matter halos is a fundamental paradigm underpinning modern astrophysics and predicts a strong decline in the number of massive galaxies at early cosmic times. Extremely massive quiescent galaxies (stellar masses $>10^{11}$ M${}_{\odot }$) have now been observed as early as 1-2 billions years after the Big Bang; these are extremely constraining on theoretical models as they form 300-500 Myr earlier and only some models can form massive galaxies this early. Here we report on the spectroscopic observations with the James Webb Space Telescope of a massive quiescent galaxy ZF-UDS-7329 at redshift 3.205 $\pm$ 0.005 that eluded deep ground-based spectrscopy, is significantly redder than typical and whose spectrum reveals features typical of much older stellar populations. Detailed modelling shows the stellar population formed around 1.5 billion years earlier in time (z ~ 11) at an epoch when dark matter halos of sufficient hosting mass have not yet assembled in the standard scenario. This observation may point to the presence of undetected populations of early galaxies and the possibility of significant gaps in our understanding of early stellar populations, galaxy formation and/or the nature of dark matter.

21 pages, 6 figures, updated to reflect accepted version. v3 with figure caption clarified

References in corpus (42)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework
• UniverseMachine: The Correlation between Galaxy Growth and Dark Matter Halo Assembly from z=0-10
• Stellar Population Inference with Prospector
• A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang
• How to Measure Galaxy Star Formation Histories II: Nonparametric Models
• The halo mass function from the dark ages through the present day
• The Gemini Deep Deep Survey: III. The abundance of massive galaxies 3-6 billion years after the Big Bang
• Stress Testing $\Lambda$CDM with High-redshift Galaxy Candidates
• How to measure galaxy star-formation histories I: Parametric models
• A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717
• The FLAMINGO project: cosmological hydrodynamical simulations for large-scale structure and galaxy cluster surveys
• Introducing the THESAN project: radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the epoch of reionization
• A massive quiescent galaxy at redshift 4.658
• The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on the James Webb Space Telescope II. Multi-object spectroscopy (MOS)
• Quiescent galaxies 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and their progenitors
• The mass relations between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies at 1<z<2 with HST-WFC3
• CEERS Spectroscopic Confirmation of NIRCam-Selected z > 8 Galaxy Candidates with JWST/NIRSpec: Initial Characterization of their Properties
• A New Census of the 0.2 < z < 3.0 Universe, Part I: The Stellar Mass Function
• Accelerating early massive galaxy formation with primordial black holes
• Red & Dead CANDELS: massive passive galaxies at the dawn of the Universe
• The Massive Ancient Galaxies At $z>3$ NEar-infrared (MAGAZ3NE) Survey: Confirmation of Extremely Rapid Star-Formation and Quenching Timescales for Massive Galaxies in the Early Universe
• Jekyll & Hyde: quiescence and extreme obscuration in a pair of massive galaxies 1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang
• An Extremely Massive Quiescent Galaxy at $z=3.493$: Evidence of Insufficiently Rapid Quenching Mechanisms in Theoretical Models
• The Most Massive Galaxies and Black Holes Allowed by $\Lambda$CDM
• The MillenniumTNG Project: The galaxy population at $z\ge 8$
• Feedback reshapes the baryon distribution within haloes, in halo outskirts, and beyond: the closure radius from dwarfs to massive clusters
• Recovering the star formation histories of recently-quenched galaxies: the impact of model and prior choices
• Primordial power spectrum in light of JWST observations of high redshift galaxies
• The Nuclear Near-Infrared Spectral Properties of Nearby Galaxies
• Early galaxy formation in warm dark matter cosmologies
• Alleviating the need for exponential evolution of JWST galaxies in 10${}^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ haloes at $z>10$ by a modified $\Lambda$CDM power spectrum
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of an Ultra Massive and Compact Galaxy at z=3.35: A Detailed Look at an Early Progenitor of Local Most Massive Ellipticals
• The impact of stellar and AGN feedback on halo-scale baryonic and dark matter accretion in the EAGLE simulations
• The Rapid Build-up of Massive Early-type Galaxies. Supersolar Metallicity, High Velocity Dispersion and Young Age for an ETG at z=3.35
• The Stellar Spectral Features of Nearby Galaxies in the Near-Infrared: Tracers of Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars?
• JWST high-z galaxy constraints on warm and cold dark matter models
• MAGAZ3NE: High Stellar Velocity Dispersions for Ultra-Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 3$
• Consistent dynamical and stellar masses with potential light IMF in massive quiescent galaxies at $3<z<4$ using velocity dispersions measurements with MOSFIRE
• The FENIKS Survey: Spectroscopic Confirmation of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at z ~ 3-5
• Bursty Star Formation Naturally Explains the Abundance of Bright Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn

Cited by in corpus (53)

• RUBIES: Evolved Stellar Populations with Extended Formation Histories at $z\sim 7-8$ in Candidate Massive Galaxies Identified with JWST/NIRSpec
• RUBIES: a complete census of the bright and red distant Universe with JWST/NIRSpec
• A remarkable Ruby: Absorption in dense gas, rather than evolved stars, drives the extreme Balmer break of a Little Red Dot at $z=3.5$
• EPOCHS IV: SED Modelling Assumptions and their impact on the Stellar Mass Function at 6.5 < z < 13.5 using PEARLS and public JWST observations
• Elevated UV luminosity density at Cosmic Dawn explained by non-evolving, weakly mass-dependent star formation efficiency
• Zapped then Napped? A rapidly quenched remnant leaker candidate with a steep spectroscopic ${\beta }_{UV}$ slope at z=8.5
• The NIRSpec Wide GTO Survey
• Gas outflows in two recently quenched galaxies at z = 4 and 7
• The distribution of galaxy rotation in JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey
• JWST/MIRI reveals the true number density of massive galaxies in the early Universe
• PANORAMIC: Discovery of an Ultra-Massive Grand-Design Spiral Galaxy at $z\sim 5.2$
• Discrepancies Between JWST Observations and Simulations of Quenched Massive Galaxies at $z>3$: A Comparative Study With IllustrisTNG and ASTRID
• Lonely Little Red Dots: Challenges to the AGN-nature of little red dots through their clustering and spectral energy distributions
• On the accuracy of dark matter halo merger trees and the consequences for semi-analytic models of galaxy formation
• Witnessing an extreme, highly efficient galaxy formation mode with resolved Ly$\alpha$ and LyC emission
• JADES: Rest-frame UV-to-NIR Size Evolution of Massive Quiescent Galaxies from Redshift z=5 to z=0.5
• COSMOS-Web: The emergence of the Hubble Sequence
• Pushing JWST to the extremes: search and scrutiny of bright galaxy candidates at z$\simeq$15-30
• Accelerated quenching and chemical enhancement of massive galaxies in a $z\sim 4$ gas-rich halo
• Impact of Primordial Black Hole Dark Matter on Gas Properties at Very High Redshift: A Semi-Analytical Model
• Explaining ultra-massive quiescent galaxies at $3<z<5$ in the context of their environments
• The Impact of Early Massive Galaxy Formation on the Cosmic Microwave Background
• PRIMER & JADES reveal an abundance of massive quiescent galaxies at 2 < z < 5
• Exploring Spatially-Resolved Metallicities, Dynamics and Outflows in Low-Mass Galaxies at $z\sim 7.6$
• JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of intermediate-mass quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3-4$
• On the Origin of the High Star-Formation Efficiency in Massive Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn
• An empirical consistent redshift bias: A possible direct reproducible observation of Zwicky's TL theory
• MAGAZ3NE: Massive, Extremely Dusty Galaxies at $z\sim 2$ Lead to Photometric Overestimation of Number Densities of the Most Massive Galaxies at $3<z<4$
• Double Trouble: Two spectroscopically confirmed low-mass quiescent galaxies at z>5 in overdensities
• RUBIES spectroscopically confirms the high number density of quiescent galaxies from $2<\mathbf{z}<5$
• When relics were made: vigorous stellar rotation and low dark matter content in the massive ultra-compact galaxy GS-9209 at z=4.66
• ZF-UDS-7329: A relic galaxy in the early Universe
• Impact of primordial black holes on the formation of the first stars and galaxies
• On the unique evolutionary mechanisms of massive quiescent galaxies in the epoch of reionisation
• Feeding the Dead: Neutral Gas Inflow in a Long-Quenched Ancient Massive Galaxy at $z\sim 2.7$ Observed with JWST/NIRSpec
• A census of quiescent galaxies across $0.5<z<8$ with JWST/MIRI: Mass-dependent number density evolution of quiescent galaxies in the early Universe
• Extended Enriched Gas in a Multi-Galaxy Merger at Redshift 6.7
• Stringent constraint on the CCC+TL cosmology with $H(z)$ Measurements
• TP-AGB stars and stellar population properties of a post-starburst galaxy at $z\sim 2$ through optical and NIR spectroscopy with JWST
• Extreme Galaxy-scale Outflows Are Frequent among Luminous Early Quasars
• INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Populations In RElics. IX. KiDS J0842+0059: the first fully confirmed relic beyond the local Universe
• Dark Secrets of Baryons: Illuminating Dark Matter-Baryon Interactions with JWST
• Asymmetry in galaxy spin directions: a fully reproducible experiment using HSC data
• A physically-motivated template set for high-z galaxy SED fitting
• The Connection between Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies and the First Massive Quenched Galaxies
• LEGA-C stellar populations scaling relations. II: Dissecting mass-complete archaeological trends and their evolution since z~0.7 with LEGA-C and SDSS
• Dynamical properties and star formation history of a low-mass quenched galaxy at Cosmic Noon
• Is Dark Energy Increasing or Decreasing in the Late Universe?
• Multiphase images of a powerful supernova-driven wind in the early Universe
• Redshift Duality with Pantheon+SH0ES in a Planck-anchored Flat $\Lambda$CDM Framework: Implications for Hubble Tension and Observational Inference
• GA-NIFS: AGN activity in a Lyα emitter within a triple-AGN system anchored by a passive galaxy at z=3
• The Nature of High-Redshift Massive Quiescent Galaxies -- Searching for RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 in FLARES
• The Cosmic Rush Hour: Rapid Formation of Bright, Massive, Disky, Star-Forming Galaxies as Signatures of Early-Universe Physics