Exploring Cosmic Dawn with PANORAMIC I: The Bright End of the UVLF at $z\sim 9-17$

Abstract

In its first two years of operation, the James Webb Space Telescope has enabled the discovery of a surprising number of UV-bright galaxies at $z\sim 10-14$. Their number density is still relatively uncertain, due to cosmic variance effects, and the limited survey area with deep imaging. Here, we combine pure parallel imaging from the PANORAMIC survey with data from legacy fields to constrain the bright end (M${}_{\mathrm{UV}}<-18.5$) of the UV luminosity function (UVLF) over $0.28$deg${}^2$ of NIRCam imaging in 6 or more filters, and along 35 independent lines of sight. Using conservative color selections, we compile robust dropout samples at $z\sim 10$, $z\sim 13$, and $z\sim 17$, and identify 16 new candidates from PANORAMIC. Our inferred UVLFs at $z\sim 10$ are consistent with literature results and we confirm the high abundance of galaxies at the bright end (M${}_{\mathrm{UV}}\lesssim -21$) with better number statistics. We find somewhat lower number densities at $z\sim 13$ compared to previous studies, and no robust candidates at $z\sim 17$, indicating a rapid evolution of the galaxy population from $z\sim 10-17$. The improved upper limits at $z\sim 17$ imply that the cosmic UV luminosity density drops by at least a factor $\sim 50$ from $z\sim 10$ to $z\sim 17$. Comparing our results to models proposed to explain the abundance of UV-bright galaxies at $z\gtrsim 10$, we conclude that a modest increase in the star formation efficiency, or in the burstiness of star formation, a more top-heavy initial mass function, a lack of dust attenuation, or a combination of these effects at $z\gtrsim 10$, is sufficient to match our observational constraints.

32 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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