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Ikkoh Shimizu

Publications and source records attributed to Ikkoh Shimizu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Probing Feedback via IGM tomography and Ly$α$ forest with Subaru PFS, TMT/ELT, and JWST

In preparation for the IGM tomography study by Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) survey and other large future telescopes such as TMT/ELT/GMT, we present the results of our pilot study on Ly$α$ forest and IGM tomography statistics using the GADGET3-OSAKA cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamical simulation. Our simulation includes models for star formation and supernova feedback, which enables more realistic cross-correlation studies between galaxies, neutral hydrogen (HI) and metals in circumgalactic and intergalactic medium. We create a light-cone data set at $z=2-3$ from our simulations and generate mock Ly$α$ forest data. As a first step, in this paper, we focus on the distribution of HI and galaxies, and present statistical results on 1D flux PDF, 1D power spectrum, flux contrast vs. impact parameter, HI$-$galaxy cross-correlations. Our results show overall agreement with current observational data, with some interesting discrepancies on small scales that are due to either feedback effects or varying observational conditions. Our simulation shows stronger HI absorption with decreasing transverse distance from galaxies. We find that the massive galaxies with $M_\star \ge 10^{10}\,M_\odot$ contribute strongly to the flux contrast signal, and that the lower-mass galaxies with $M_\star \sim 10^8-10^{10}\,M_\odot$ tend to dilute the flux contrast signal from massive galaxies. On large scales, the average flux contrast smoothly connects to the IGM level, supporting the concordance $Λ$ cold dark matter model. We also find an increase in the HI absorption toward the center of a protocluster.

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The AGORA High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. III: Cosmological zoom-in simulation of a Milky Way-mass halo

We present a suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations to $z=4$ of a $10^{12}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ halo at $z=0$, obtained using seven contemporary astrophysical simulation codes widely used in the numerical galaxy formation community. Physics prescriptions for gas cooling, heating, and star formation, are similar to the ones used in our previous {\it AGORA} disk comparison but now account for the effects of cosmological processes. In this work, we introduce the most careful comparison yet of galaxy formation simulations run by different code groups, together with a series of four calibration steps each of which is designed to reduce the number of tunable simulation parameters adopted in the final run. After all the participating code groups successfully completed the calibration steps, we reach a suite of cosmological simulations with similar mass assembly histories down to $z=4$. With numerical accuracy that resolves the internal structure of a target halo, we find that the codes overall agree well with one another in e.g., gas and stellar properties, but also show differences in e.g., circumgalactic medium properties. We argue that, if adequately tested in accordance with our proposed calibration steps and common parameters, the results of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations can be robust and reproducible. New code groups are invited to join this comparison by generating equivalent models by adopting the common initial conditions, the common easy-to-implement physics package, and the proposed calibration steps. Further analyses of the simulations presented here will be in forthcoming reports from our Collaboration.

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Catch Me if You Can: Biased Distribution of Ly$α$-emitting Galaxies according to the Viewing Direction

We report that Ly$α$-emitting galaxies (LAEs) may not faithfully trace the cosmic web of neutral hydrogen (HI), but their distribution is likely biased depending on the viewing direction. We calculate the cross-correlation (CCF) between galaxies and Ly$α$ forest transmission fluctuations on the near and far sides of the galaxies separately, for three galaxy samples at $z\sim2$: LAEs, [OIII] emitters (O3Es), and continuum-selected galaxies. We find that only LAEs have anisotropic CCFs, with the near side one showing lower signals up to $r=3-4~h^{-1}$ comoving Mpc. This means that the average HI density on the near side of LAEs is lower than that on the far-side by a factor of $2.1$ under the Fluctuating Gunn-Peterson Approximation. Mock LAEs created by assigning Ly$α$ equivalent width ($EW_\text{Ly$α$}^\text{obs}$) values to O3Es with an empirical relation also show similar, anisotropic CCFs if we use only objects with higher $EW_\text{Ly$α$}^\text{obs}$ than a certain threshold. These results indicate that galaxies on the far side of a dense region are more difficult to be detected ("hidden") in Ly$α$ because Ly$α$ emission toward us is absorbed by dense neutral hydrogen. If the same region is viewed from a different direction, a different set of LAEs will be selected as if galaxies are playing hide-and-seek using HI gas. Care is needed when using LAEs to search for overdensities.

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Environmental Dependence of Galactic Properties Traced by Ly$α$ Forest Absorption: Diversity among Galaxy Populations

In order to shed light on how galactic properties depend on the intergalactic medium (IGM) environment traced by the Ly$α$ forest, we observationally investigate the IGM-galaxy connection using the publicly available 3D IGM tomography data (CLAMATO) and several galaxy catalogs in the COSMOS field. We measure the cross-correlation function (CCF) for $570$ galaxies with spec-$z$ measurements and detect a correlation with the IGM up to $50$ $h^{-1}$ comoving Mpc. We show that galaxies with stellar masses of $10^9-10^{10}$ M$_\odot$ are the dominant contributor to the total CCF signal. We also investigate CCFs for several galaxy populations: Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs), H$α$ emitters (HAEs), [OIII] emitters (O3Es), active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), and we detect the highest signal in AGNs and SMGs at large scales ($r\geq5$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc), but in LAEs at small scales ($r<5$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc). We find that they live in various IGM environments -- HAEs trace the IGM in a similar manner to the continuum-selected galaxies, but LAEs and O3Es tend to reside in higher-density regions. Additionally, LAEs' CCF is flat up to $r\sim3$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc, indicating that they tend to avoid the highest-density regions. For AGNs and SMGs, the CCF peak at $r=5-6$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc implies that they tend to be in locally lower-density regions. We suspect that it is due to the photoionization of IGM HI by AGNs, i.e., the proximity effect.

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Connection Between Galaxies and HI in the Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Media: Variation According to Galaxy Stellar Mass and Star-formation Activity

This paper systematically investigates comoving Mpc scale intergalactic medium (IGM) environment around galaxies traced by the Ly$α$ forest. Using our cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, we investigate the IGM-galaxy connection at $z=2$ by two methods: (I) cross-correlation analysis between galaxies and the fluctuation of Ly$α$ forest transmission ($δ_\text{F}$); and (II) comparing the overdensity of neutral hydrogen (HI) and galaxies. Our simulations reproduce observed cross-correlation functions (CCF) between Ly$α$ forest and Lyman-break galaxies. We further investigate the variation of the CCF using subsamples divided by dark matter halo mass ($M_\text{DH}$), galaxy stellar mass ($M_\star$), and star-formation rate (SFR), and find that the CCF signal becomes stronger with increasing $M_\text{DH}$, $M_\star$, and SFR. The CCFs between galaxies and gas-density fluctuation are also found to have similar trends. Therefore, the variation of the $δ_\text{F}$-CCF depending on $M_\text{DH}$, $M_\star$, and SFR is due to varying gas density around galaxies. We find that the correlation between galaxies and the IGM HI distribution strongly depends on $M_\text{DH}$ as expected from the linear theory. Our results support the $Λ$CDM paradigm, finding a spatial correlation between galaxies and IGM HI, with more massive galaxies being clustered in higher-density regions.

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Statistical correlation between the distribution of Ly$α$ emitters and IGM HI at $z\sim2.2$ mapped by Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam

The correlation between neutral Hydrogen (HI) in the intergalactic medium (IGM) and galaxies now attracts great interests. We select four fields which include several coherently strong Ly$α$ absorption systems at $z\sim2.2$ detected by using background quasars from the whole SDSS/(e)BOSS database. Deep narrow-band and $g$-band imaging are performed using the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. We select out 2,642 Ly$α$ emitter (LAE) candidates at $z=2.177\pm0.023$ down to the Ly$α$ luminosity of $L_{\text{Ly}α}\approx 2 \times 10^{42} {\rm erg~s}^{-1}$ to construct the galaxy overdensity maps, covering an effective area of 5.39 deg$^2$. Combining the sample with the Ly$α$ absorption estimated from 64 (e)BOSS quasar spectra, we find a moderate to strong correlation between the LAE overdensity $δ_{\rm LAE}$ and the effective optical depth $τ_{\rm LoS}$ in line-of-sights, with $P$-value$=0.09\%$ ($<0.01\%$) when the field that contains a significant quasar overdensity is in(ex)cluded. The cross-correlation analysis also clearly suggests that up to $4\pm1$ pMpc, LAEs tend to cluster in the regions rich in HI gas, indicated by the high $τ_{\rm LoS}$, and avoid the low $τ_{\rm LoS}$ region where the HI gas is deficient. By averaging the $τ_{\rm LoS}$ as a function of the projected distance ($d$) to LAEs, we find a $30\%$ excess signal at $2σ$ level at $d<200$ pkpc, indicating the dense HI in circumgalactic medium, and a tentative excess at $400<d<600$ pkpc in IGM regime, corroborating the cross-correlation signal detected at about $0.5$ pMpc. These statistical analyses indicate that galaxy$-$IGM HI correlations exist on scales ranging from several hundred pkpc to several pMpc at $z\sim2.2$.

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ALMA uncovers the [CII] emission and warm dust continuum in a z = 8.31 Lyman break galaxy

We report on the detection of the [CII] 157.7 $μ$m emission from the Lyman break galaxy (LBG) MACS0416_Y1 at z = 8.3113, by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The luminosity ratio of [OIII] 88 $μ$m (from previous campaigns) to [CII] is 9.31 $\pm$ 2.6, indicative of hard interstellar radiation fields and/or a low covering fraction of photo-dissociation regions. The emission of [CII] is cospatial to the 850 $μ$m dust emission (90 $μ$m rest-frame, from previous campaigns), however the peak [CII] emission does not agree with the peak [OIII] emission, suggesting that the lines originate from different conditions in the interstellar medium. We fail to detect continuum emission at 1.5 mm (160 $μ$m rest-frame) down to 18 $μ$Jy (3$σ$). This nondetection places a strong limit on the dust spectrum, considering the 137 $\pm$ 26 $μ$Jy continuum emission at 850 $μ$m. This suggests an unusually warm dust component (T $>$ 80 K, 90% confidence limit), and/or a steep dust-emissivity index ($β_{\rm dust}$ $>$ 2), compared to galaxy-wide dust emission found at lower redshifts (typically T $\sim$ 30 - 50 K, $β_{\rm dust}$ $\sim$ 1 - 2). If such temperatures are common, this would reduce the required dust mass and relax the dust production problem at the highest redshifts. We therefore warn against the use of only single-wavelength information to derive physical properties, recommend a more thorough examination of dust temperatures in the early Universe, and stress the need for instrumentation that probes the peak of warm dust in the Epoch of Reionization.

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Bubble mapping with the Square Kilometer Array -- I. Detecting galaxies with Euclid, JWST, WFIRST and ELT within ionized bubbles in the intergalactic medium at z>6

The Square Kilometer Array is expected to provide the first tomographic observations of the neutral intergalactic medium at redshifts z>6 and pinpoint the locations of individual ionized bubbles during early stages of cosmic reionization. In scenarios where star-forming galaxies provide most of the ionizing photons required for cosmic reionization, one expects the first ionized bubbles to be centered on overdensities of such galaxies. Here, we model the properties of galaxy populations within isolated, ionized bubbles that SKA-1 should be able to resolve at z=7-10, and explore the prospects for galaxy counts within such structures with various upcoming near-infrared telescopes. We find that, for the bubbles that are within reach of SKA-1 tomography, the bubble volume is closely tied to the number of ionizing photons that have escaped from the galaxies within. In the case of galaxy-dominated reionization, galaxies are expected to turn up above the spectroscopic detection threshold of JWST and ELT in even the smallest resolvable bubbles at redshifts z=10 or below. The prospects of detecting galaxies within these structures in purely photometric surveys with Euclid, WFIRST, JWST or ELT are also discussed. While spectroscopy is preferable towards the end of reionization to provide a robust sample of bubble members, multiband imaging may be a competitive option for bubbles at z~10, due to the very small number of line-of-sight interlopers expected at similar redshifts.

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"Big Three Dragons": a z = 7.15 Lyman BreakGalaxy Detected in [OIII] 88 $μ$m, [CII] 158 $μ$m, and Dust Continuum with ALMA

We present new ALMA observations and physical properties of a Lyman Break Galaxy at z=7.15. Our target, B14-65666, has a bright ultra-violet (UV) absolute magnitude, $M_{\rm UV}\approx-22.4$, and has been spectroscopically identified in Ly$α$ with a small rest-frame equivalent width of $\approx4$ Å. Previous HST image has shown that the target is comprised of two spatially separated clumps in the rest-frame UV. With ALMA, we have newly detected spatially resolved [OIII] 88 $μ$m, [CII] 158 $μ$m, and their underlying dust continuum emission. In the whole system of B14-65666, the [OIII] and [CII] lines have consistent redshifts of $7.1520\pm0.0003$, and the [OIII] luminosity, $(34.4\pm4.1)\times10^{8}L_{\rm \odot}$, is about three times higher than the [CII] luminosity, $(11.0\pm1.4)\times10^{8}L_{\rm \odot}$. With our two continuum flux densities, the dust temperature is constrained to be $T_{\rm d}\approx50-60$ K under the assumption of the dust emissivity index of $β_{\rm d}=2.0-1.5$, leading to a large total infrared luminosity of $L_{\rm TIR}\approx1\times10^{12}L_{\rm \odot}$. Owing to our high spatial resolution data, we show that the [OIII] and [CII] emission can be spatially decomposed into two clumps associated with the two rest-frame UV clumps whose spectra are kinematically separated by $\approx200$ km s$^{-1}$. We also find these two clumps have comparable UV, infrared, [OIII], and [CII] luminosities. Based on these results, we argue that B14-65666 is a starburst galaxy induced by a major-merger. The merger interpretation is also supported by the large specific star-formation rate (defined as the star-formation rate per unit stellar mass), sSFR$=260^{+119}_{-57}$ Gyr$^{-1}$, inferred from our SED fitting. Probably, a strong UV radiation field caused by intense star formation contributes to its high dust temperature and the [OIII]-to-[CII] luminosity ratio.

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Detection of the Far-infrared [O III] and Dust Emission in a Galaxy at Redshift 8.312: Early Metal Enrichment in the Heart of the Reionization Era

We present the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) detection of the [O III] 88 $μ$m line and rest-frame 90 $μ$m dust continuum emission in a Y-dropout Lyman break galaxy (LBG), MACS0416_Y1, lying behind the Frontier Field cluster MACS J0416.1-2403. This [O III] detection confirms the LBG with a spectroscopic redshift of $z = 8.3118 \pm 0.0003$, making this object one of the furthest galaxies ever identified spectroscopically. The observed 850 $μ$m flux density of $137 \pm 26$ $μ$Jy corresponds to a de-lensed total infrared (IR) luminosity of $L_{\rm IR} = (1.7 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{11} L_{\odot}$ if assuming a dust temperature of $T_{\rm dust} = 50$ K and an emissivity index of $β= 1.5$, yielding a large dust mass of $4 \times 10^6 M_{\odot}$. The ultraviolet-to-far IR spectral energy distribution modeling where the [O III] emissivity model is incorporated suggests the presence of a young ($τ_{\rm age} \approx 4$ Myr), star-forming (SFR $\approx 60 M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$), moderately metal-polluted ($Z \approx 0.2 Z_{\odot}$) stellar component with a mass of $M_{\rm star} = 3 \times 10^8 M_{\odot}$. An analytic dust mass evolution model with a single episode of star-formation does not reproduce the metallicity and dust mass in $τ_{\rm age} \approx 4$ Myr, suggesting a pre-existing evolved stellar component with $M_{\rm star} \sim 3 \times 10^9 M_{\odot}$ and $τ_{\rm age} \sim 0.3$ Gyr as the origin of the dust mass.

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Comparison of cosmological simulations and deep submillimetre galaxy surveys

Recent progress in submillimetre surveys by single-dish telescopes allows us to further challenge the consistency between cosmological simulations and observations. In particular, we compare our simulations that include dust formation and destruction with the recent SCUBA-2 surveys (`STUDIES') by putting emphases on basic observational properties of dust emission such as dust temperature, size of infrared (IR)-emitting region, IR luminosity function and IRX--$β$ relation. After confirming that our models reproduce the local galaxy properties, we examine the STUDIES sample at $z\approx 1-4$, finding that the simulation reproduces the aforementioned quantities except for the $z\gtrsim 2$ IR luminosity function at the massive end ($\sim 10^{13}$ L$_{\odot}$). This means that the current simulation correctly reproduces the overall scaling between the size and luminosity (or star formation rate) of dusty region, but lacks extreme starburst phenomena at $z\gtrsim 2$. We also discuss extinction curves and possible AGN contribution.

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Osaka Feedback Model: Isolated Disk Galaxy Simulations

We study various implementations of supernova feedback model and present the results of our `Osaka feedback model' using isolated galaxy simulations performed by the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code {\small GADGET-3}. Our model is a modified version of Stinson et al.'s work, and we newly add the momentum kick for SN feedback rather than only thermal feedback. We incorporate the physical properties of SN remnants from the results of Chevalier and McKee \& Ostriker, such as the effective radius of SN bubble and the remnant life-time, in the form of Sedov-Taylor (ST)-like solutions with the effect of radiative cooling. Our model utilizes the local, physical parameters such as density and temperature of the ISM rather than galactic or halo properties to determine the galactic wind velocity or mass-loading factor. The Osaka model succeeds in self-regulating star formation, and naturally produces galactic outflow with variable velocities depending on the local environment and available SN energy as a function of time.An important addition to our previous work by Aoyama et al. is the implementation of the {\small CELib} chemistry library which allows us to deal with the time-dependent input of energy and metal yields for type Ia \& II supernovae (SNe) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. As initial tests of our model, we apply it to isolated galaxy simulations, and examine various galactic properties and compare with observational data including metal abundances.

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Dust scaling relations in a cosmological simulation

To study the dust evolution in the cosmological structure formation history, we perform a smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulation with a dust enrichment model in a cosmological volume. We adopt the dust evolution model that represents the grain size distribution by two sizes and takes into account stellar dust production and interstellar dust processing. We examine the dust mass function and the scaling properties of dust in terms of the characteristics of galaxies. The simulation broadly reproduces the observed dust mass functions at redshift $z = 0$, except that it overproduces the massive end at dust mass $M_\mathrm{d} \gtrsim 10^{8}$ ${\rm M}_\odot$. This overabundance is due to overproducing massive gas/metal-rich systems, but we also note that the relation between stellar mass and gas-phase metallicity is reproduced fairly well by our recipe. The relation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity shows a good agreement with the observed one at $z=0$, which indicates successful implementation of dust evolution in our cosmological simulation. Star formation consumes not only gas but also dust, causing a decreasing trend of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio at the high-mass end of galaxies. We also examine the redshift evolution up to $z \sim~ 5$, and find that the galaxies have on average the highest dust mass at $z = 1-2$. For the grain size distribution, we find that galaxies with metallicity $\sim 0.3~ Z_\odot$ tend to have the highest small-to-large grain abundance ratio; consequently, the extinction curves in those galaxies have the steepest ultraviolet slopes.

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The distribution and physical properties of high-redshift [OIII] emitters in a cosmological hydrodynamics simulation

Recent observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) detected far-infrared emission lines such as the [OIII] 88 μm line from galaxies at $z \sim 7 - 9$. Far-infrared lines can be used to probe the structure and kinematics of such high-redshift galaxies as well as to accurately determine their spectroscopic redshifts. We use a cosmological simulation of galaxy formation to study the physical properties of [OIII] 88 μm emitters. In a comoving volume of 50 $h^{-1}$ Mpc on a side, we locate 34 galaxies with stellar masses greater than $10^8\ {\rm M_\odot}$ at $z = 9$, and more than 270 such galaxies at $z = 7$. We calculate the [OIII] 88 μm luminosities ($L_{\rm OIII}$) by combining a physical model of HII regions with emission line calculations using the photoionization code CLOUDY. We show that the resulting $L_{\rm OIII}$, for a given star formation rate, is slightly higher than predicted from the empirical relation for local galaxies, and is consistent with recent observations of galaxies at redshifts 7 - 9. Bright [OIII] emitters with $L_{\rm OIII} > 10^8 {\rm L_\odot}$ have stellar masses greater than $10^9\ {\rm M_\odot}$, star formation rates higher than $3\ {\rm M_\odot\ yr}^{-1}$, and the typical metallicity is $\sim 0.1\ {\rm Z_\odot}$. The galaxies are hosted by dark matter halos with masses greater than $10^{10.5}\ {\rm M_\odot}$. Massive galaxies show characteristic structure where the [OIII] emitting gas largely overlaps with young stars, but the emission peak is separated from the main stellar population, suggesting the stochastic and localized nature of star formation in the first galaxies. We propose to use the [OIII] 5007 Å line, to be detected by James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), to study the properties of galaxies whose [OIII] 88 μm line emission has been already detected with ALMA.

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Cosmological simulation with dust formation and destruction

To investigate the evolution of dust in a cosmological volume, we perform hydrodynamic simulations, in which the enrichment of metals and dust is treated self-consistently with star formation and stellar feedback. We consider dust evolution driven by dust production in stellar ejecta, dust destruction by sputtering, grain growth by accretion and coagulation, and grain disruption by shattering, and treat small and large grains separately to trace the grain size distribution. After confirming that our model nicely reproduces the observed relation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity for nearby galaxies, we concentrate on the dust abundance over the cosmological volume in this paper. The comoving dust mass density has a peak at redshift $z\sim 1$--2, coincident with the observationally suggested dustiest epoch in the Universe. {In the local Universe}, roughly 10 per cent of the dust is contained in the intergalactic medium (IGM), where only 1/3--1/4 of the dust survives against dust destruction by sputtering. We also show that the dust mass function is roughly reproduced at $\lesssim 10^8$ M$_\odot$, while the massive end still has a discrepancy, which indicates {the necessity of stronger feedback in massive galaxies}. %%The relation showed that accretion is essential for dusty galaxies. In addition, our model broadly reproduces the observed radial profile of dust surface density in the circum-galactic medium (CGM). While our model satisfies the observational constraints for the dust extinction {on cosmological scales}, it predicts that the dust in the CGM and IGM is dominated by large ($> 0.03~μ$m) grains, which is in tension with the steep reddening curves {observed} in the CGM.

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The onset of star formation 250 million years after the Big Bang

A fundamental quest of modern astronomy is to locate the earliest galaxies and study how they influenced the intergalactic medium a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The abundance of star-forming galaxies is known to decline from redshifts of about 6 to 10, but a key question is the extent of star formation at even earlier times, corresponding to the period when the first galaxies might have emerged. Here we present spectroscopic observations of MACS1149-JD1, a gravitationally lensed galaxy observed when the Universe was less than four per cent of its present age. We detect an emission line of doubly ionized oxygen at a redshift of $9.1096\pm0.0006$, with an uncertainty of one standard deviation. This precisely determined redshift indicates that the red rest-frame optical colour arises from a dominant stellar component that formed about 250 million years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of about 15. Our results indicate the it may be possible to detect such early episodes of star formation in similar galaxies with future telescopes.

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SILVERRUSH. VI. A simulation of Ly$α$ emitters in the reionization epoch and a comparison with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey early data

The survey of Lyman $α$ emitters (LAEs) with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam, called SILVERRUSH (Ouchi et al.), is producing massive data of LAEs at $z\gtrsim6$. Here we present LAE simulations to compare the SILVERRUSH data. In 162$^3$ comoving Mpc$^3$ boxes, where numerical radiative transfer calculations of reionization were performed, LAEs have been modeled with physically motivated analytic recipes as a function of halo mass. We have examined $2^3$ models depending on the presence or absence of dispersion of halo Ly$α$ emissivity, dispersion of the halo Ly$α$ optical depth, $τ_α$, and halo mass dependence of $τ_α$. The unique free parameter in our model, a pivot value of $τ_α$, is calibrated so as to reproduce the $z=5.7$ Ly$α$ luminosity function (LF). We compare our model predictions with Ly$α$ LFs at $z=6.6$ and $7.3$, LAE angular auto-correlation functions (ACFs) at $z=5.7$ and $6.6$, and LAE fractions in Lyman break galaxies at $5<z<7$. The Ly$α$ LFs and ACFs are reproduced by multiple models, but the LAE fraction turns out to be the most critical test. The dispersion of $τ_α$ and the halo mass dependence of $τ_α$ are essential to explain all observations reasonably. Therefore, a simple model of one-to-one correspondence between halo mass and Ly$α$ luminosity with a constant Ly$α$ escape fraction has been ruled out. Based on our best model, we present a formula to estimate the intergalactic neutral hydrogen fraction, $x_{\rm HI}$, from the observed Ly$α$ luminosity density at $z\gtrsim6$. We finally obtain $x_{\rm HI}=0.5_{-0.3}^{+0.1}$ as a volume-average at $z=7.3$.

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The AGORA High-Resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. II: Isolated Disk Test

Using an isolated Milky Way-mass galaxy simulation, we compare results from 9 state-of-the-art gravito-hydrodynamics codes widely used in the numerical community. We utilize the infrastructure we have built for the AGORA High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. This includes the common disk initial conditions, common physics models (e.g., radiative cooling and UV background by the standardized package Grackle) and common analysis toolkit yt, all of which are publicly available. Subgrid physics models such as Jeans pressure floor, star formation, supernova feedback energy, and metal production are carefully constrained across code platforms. With numerical accuracy that resolves the disk scale height, we find that the codes overall agree well with one another in many dimensions including: gas and stellar surface densities, rotation curves, velocity dispersions, density and temperature distribution functions, disk vertical heights, stellar clumps, star formation rates, and Kennicutt-Schmidt relations. Quantities such as velocity dispersions are very robust (agreement within a few tens of percent at all radii) while measures like newly-formed stellar clump mass functions show more significant variation (difference by up to a factor of ~3). Systematic differences exist, for example, between mesh-based and particle-based codes in the low density region, and between more diffusive and less diffusive schemes in the high density tail of the density distribution. Yet intrinsic code differences are generally small compared to the variations in numerical implementations of the common subgrid physics such as supernova feedback. Our experiment reassures that, if adequately designed in accordance with our proposed common parameters, results of a modern high-resolution galaxy formation simulation are more sensitive to input physics than to intrinsic differences in numerical schemes.

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