Kavli Affiliate: Roberto Maiolino
| First 5 Authors: , , , ,
| Summary:
Stars in galaxies form when baryons radiatively cool down and fall into
gravitational wells whose mass is dominated by dark matter. Eventually, star
formation quenches as gas is depleted and/or perturbed by feedback processes,
no longer being able to collapse and condense. We report the first spatially
resolved spectroscopic observations, using the JWST/NIRSpec IFU, of a massive,
completely quiescent galaxy (Jekyll) and its neighborhood at $z=3.714$, when
the Universe age was 10% of today’s. Jekyll resides in a massive dark matter
halo (with mass M$_mathrmDM>10^12$ M$_odot$) and forms a galaxy pair with
Hyde, which shows very intense dust-enshrouded star formation (star formation
rate $sim300$ M$_odot$yr$^-1$). We find large amounts of kinematically
perturbed ionized and neutral gas in the circumgalactic medium around the pair.
Despite this large gas reservoir, Jekyll, which formed $10^11$ M$_odot$ in
stars and chemically enriched early (first billion years of the Universe) and
quickly (200-300 Myr), has remained quiescent for over 500 Myr. The properties
of the gas found around the two galaxies are consistent with intense,
AGN-induced photoionization, or intense shocks. However, with the current data
no obscured or unobscured AGN is detected in the central galaxy (Jekyll) nor in
the very active and dust rich star-forming galaxy (Hyde).
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