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Belli S, Park M, Davies RL, Mendel JT, Johnson BD, Conroy C, Benton C, Bugiani L, Emami R, Leja J, Li Y, Maheson G, Mathews EP, Naidu RP, Nelson EJ, Tacchella S, Terrazas BA, Weinberger R. Star formation shut down by multiphase gas outflow in a galaxy at a redshift of 2.45. Nature 2024; 630:54-58. [PMID: 38648852 PMCID: PMC11153157 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07412-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/11/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024]
Abstract
Large-scale outflows driven by supermassive black holes are thought to have a fundamental role in suppressing star formation in massive galaxies. However, direct observational evidence for this hypothesis is still lacking, particularly in the young universe where star-formation quenching is remarkably rapid1-3, thus requiring effective removal of gas4 as opposed to slow gas heating5,6. Although outflows of ionized gas are frequently detected in massive distant galaxies7, the amount of ejected mass is too small to be able to suppress star formation8,9. Gas ejection is expected to be more efficient in the neutral and molecular phases10, but at high redshift these have only been observed in starbursts and quasars11,12. Here we report JWST spectroscopy of a massive galaxy experiencing rapid quenching at a redshift of 2.445. We detect a weak outflow of ionized gas and a powerful outflow of neutral gas, with a mass outflow rate that is sufficient to quench the star formation. Neither X-ray nor radio activity is detected; however, the presence of a supermassive black hole is suggested by the properties of the ionized gas emission lines. We thus conclude that supermassive black holes are able to rapidly suppress star formation in massive galaxies by efficiently ejecting neutral gas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sirio Belli
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
| | - Minjung Park
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rebecca L Davies
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)
| | - J Trevor Mendel
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | | | - Charlie Conroy
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Chloë Benton
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Letizia Bugiani
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Razieh Emami
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Joel Leja
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Yijia Li
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Gabriel Maheson
- Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Elijah P Mathews
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
- Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Rohan P Naidu
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Erica J Nelson
- Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Sandro Tacchella
- Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Bryan A Terrazas
- Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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Onodera M, Carollo CM, Renzini A, Cappellari M, Mancini C, Arimoto N, Daddi E, Gobat R, Strazzullo V, Tacchella S, Yamada Y. THE AGES, METALLICITIES, AND ELEMENT ABUNDANCE RATIOS OF MASSIVE QUENCHED GALAXIES AT $z\simeq 1.6$. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2015. [DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/808/2/161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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An extremely young massive clump forming by gravitational collapse in a primordial galaxy. Nature 2015; 521:54-6. [PMID: 25951282 DOI: 10.1038/nature14409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2014] [Accepted: 02/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
When cosmic star formation history reaches a peak (at about redshift z ≈ 2), galaxies vigorously fed by cosmic reservoirs are dominated by gas and contain massive star-forming clumps, which are thought to form by violent gravitational instabilities in highly turbulent gas-rich disks. However, a clump formation event has not yet been observed, and it is debated whether clumps can survive energetic feedback from young stars, and afterwards migrate inwards to form galaxy bulges. Here we report the spatially resolved spectroscopy of a bright off-nuclear emission line region in a galaxy at z = 1.987. Although this region dominates star formation in the galaxy disk, its stellar continuum remains undetected in deep imaging, revealing an extremely young (less than ten million years old) massive clump, forming through the gravitational collapse of more than one billion solar masses of gas. Gas consumption in this young clump is more than tenfold faster than in the host galaxy, displaying high star-formation efficiency during this phase, in agreement with our hydrodynamic simulations. The frequency of older clumps with similar masses, coupled with our initial estimate of their formation rate (about 2.5 per billion years), supports long lifetimes (about 500 million years), favouring models in which clumps survive feedback and grow the bulges of present-day galaxies.
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Tacchella S, Carollo CM, Renzini A, Förster Schreiber NM, Lang P, Wuyts S, Cresci G, Dekel A, Genzel R, Lilly SJ, Mancini C, Newman S, Onodera M, Shapley A, Tacconi L, Woo J, Zamorani G. Galaxy evolution. Evidence for mature bulges and an inside-out quenching phase 3 billion years after the Big Bang. Science 2015; 348:314-7. [PMID: 25883353 DOI: 10.1126/science.1261094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 185] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Most present-day galaxies with stellar masses ≥10(11) solar masses show no ongoing star formation and are dense spheroids. Ten billion years ago, similarly massive galaxies were typically forming stars at rates of hundreds solar masses per year. It is debated how star formation ceased, on which time scales, and how this "quenching" relates to the emergence of dense spheroids. We measured stellar mass and star-formation rate surface density distributions in star-forming galaxies at redshift 2.2 with ~1-kiloparsec resolution. We find that, in the most massive galaxies, star formation is quenched from the inside out, on time scales less than 1 billion years in the inner regions, up to a few billion years in the outer disks. These galaxies sustain high star-formation activity at large radii, while hosting fully grown and already quenched bulges in their cores.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Tacchella
- Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - C M Carollo
- Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - A Renzini
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
| | - N M Förster Schreiber
- Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
| | - P Lang
- Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
| | - S Wuyts
- Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
| | - G Cresci
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy
| | - A Dekel
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
| | - R Genzel
- Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany. Department of Astronomy, Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Physics, Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - S J Lilly
- Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - C Mancini
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy
| | - S Newman
- Department of Astronomy, Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - M Onodera
- Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - A Shapley
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA
| | - L Tacconi
- Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
| | - J Woo
- Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - G Zamorani
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
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Wisnioski E, Förster Schreiber NM, Wuyts S, Wuyts E, Bandara K, Wilman D, Genzel R, Bender R, Davies R, Fossati M, Lang P, Mendel JT, Beifiori A, Brammer G, Chan J, Fabricius M, Fudamoto Y, Kulkarni S, Kurk J, Lutz D, Nelson EJ, Momcheva I, Rosario D, Saglia R, Seitz S, Tacconi LJ, van Dokkum PG. THE KMOS3DSURVEY: DESIGN, FIRST RESULTS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXY KINEMATICS FROM 0.7 ⩽z⩽ 2.7. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2015. [DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/799/2/209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 338] [Impact Index Per Article: 37.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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