Speaker
Description
JWST will uncover a vast population of low-luminosity galaxies at Cosmic Dawn that is responsible for most of reionization. We present predictions on this high-redshift population, focusing on their physical properties and role during reionization. We use two suites of high-resolution cosmological simulations -- the Renaissance Simulations and the Tempest Simulations -- that sample different large-scale environments. Using a sample of over 3,000 resolved galaxies along with the formation of 10,000 massive Population III stars, we show that the luminosity function flattens above a UV magnitude of -14, and the faintest galaxies may be the ancestors of ultra-faint dwarfs. Metals from Population III supernova are the primary source of metals in a fraction of the most metal-poor galaxies. Star formation in low-luminosity galaxies is extremely bursty as the gas reservoir is easily disrupted by internal feedback, resulting in a large spread in galaxy relationships, such as the mass-metallicity, SFR-stellar mass, and stellar mass-halo mass relations. This inefficient star formation ultimately leads to high mass-to-light ratios, similar to local ultra-faint dwarfs, even at high redshifts.
