James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post


Literature
Date: 2/4/2025

Arxiv: The emergence of the Star Formation Main Sequence with redshift unfolded by JWST Published: 6/19/2024 4:44:52 PM Updated: 2/1/2025 8:58:29 PM


Paper abstract: We investigate the correlation between stellar mass (M*) and star formationrate (SFR) across the stellar mass range log10(M*/Msun)~6-11. We consideralmost 50,000 star-forming galaxies at z~3-7, leveraging data fromCOSMOS/SMUVS, JADES/GOODS-SOUTH, and MIDIS/XDF. This is the first studyspanning such a wide stellar mass range without relying on gravitationallensing effects. We locate our galaxies on the SFR-M* plane to assess how thelocation of galaxies in the star-formation main sequence (MS) and starburst(SB) region evolves with stellar mass and redshift. We find that the twostar-forming modes tend to converge at log10(M*/Msun) < 7, with all galaxiesfound in the SB mode. However, deeper observations will be instrumental forreaching lower SFRs and Msun to further validate this scenario. By dissectingour galaxy sample in stellar mass and redshift, we show that the emergence ofthe star-formation MS is stellar-mass dependent: while in galaxies withlog10(M*/Msun) > 9 the MS is already well in place at z = 5-7, for galaxieswith log10(M*/Msun)~7-8 it only becomes significant at z<4. Overall, ourresults are in line with previous findings that the SB mode dominates amongstlow stellar-mass galaxies. The earlier emergence of the MS for massive galaxiesis consistent with galaxy downsizing.