Affiliation: ESA / ESAC

Contribution: Oral

Title: Galaxies Fate since the End of Cosmic Dawn: A Star-Formation Quenching Story

Abstract: Well documented over ≥12 billion years (e.g. Davidson et al 2017), the continuous increase of the fraction of quiescent galaxies (where star formation has stopped) is the statistic expression of the quenching —i.e. the permanent shutdown— of star formation in galaxies. Such permanent quenching of the star formation requires, however, mechanisms able to suppress and prevent the cold-gas infall, which one may expect to vary depending on galaxies properties and environment (e.g. Moutard et al. 2016b, 2018, 2020b). 

In particular, the physical processes which were at play in the early quenching of the very first quiescent galaxies a few 100 Myrs after their formation (e.g. Chworowsky et al. 2023) are expected to be quite different from what has driven the quenching of the star formation at lower redshift, at more advanced stages of galaxy clustering and evolution (e.g. Moutard et al. 2018, 2020b). 

I will draw on the deepest, sharpest near- and mid-infrared observations ever conducted to date with JWST (respectively, >31 and >29.5AB at 3.6 and 5.6µm), as part of JADES (NIRCam & NIRSpec GTOs) and MIDIS (MIRI GTO), and present pioneering analysis of the connection between galaxies star formation quenching and morphological transformation since z ~ 7. In particular, I will discuss the characteristics of the early quenching channel that has been operating since the end of cosmic dawn, which is different from the star formation quenching channels that have been identified at lower redshift.

This contribution can be found here (when available).