paper

ΛCDM is still not broken: empirical constraints on the star formation efficiency at z ~ 12-30

arXiv:2504.18618 · doi:10.1093/mnras/staf1699

Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to push back the redshift frontier to ever earlier cosmic epochs, with recent announcements of galaxy candidates at redshifts of . We leverage the recent GUREFT suite of dissipationless -body simulations, which were designed for interpreting observations in the high redshift Universe, and provide predictions of dark matter halo mass functions and halo growth rates for a state-of-the-art cosmology over a wide range of halo masses from . We combine these results with an empirical framework that maps halo growth rate to galaxy star formation rate and then to rest-frame UV luminosity. We find that even if all of the photometrically selected galaxy candidates are real and actually at these extreme redshifts, there is no fundamental tension with CDM, nor are exotic explanations required. With stellar light-to-mass ratios similar to those in well-studied lower redshift galaxies, our simple model can account for the observed extreme ultra-high redshift populations with star formation efficiencies that peak at values of 20-65 percent. Bursty star formation, or higher light-to-mass ratios such as are expected for lower metallicity stellar populations or a top-heavy Initial Mass Function, would result in even lower required star formation efficiencies, comparable to values predicted by high resolution numerical simulations of high-surface density star forming clouds.

arXiv comment12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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