TY - JOUR
T1 - RUBIES Reveals a Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z=7.3
AU - Weibel, Andrea
AU - de Graaff, Anna
AU - Setton, David J.
AU - Miller, Tim B.
AU - Oesch, Pascal A.
AU - Brammer, Gabriel
AU - Lagos, Claudia D. P.
AU - Whitaker, Katherine E.
AU - Williams, Christina C.
AU - Baggen, Josephine F. W.
AU - Bezanson, Rachel
AU - Boogaard, Leindert A.
AU - Cleri, Nikko J.
AU - Greene, Jenny E.
AU - Hirschmann, Michaela
AU - Hviding, Raphael E.
AU - Kuruvanthodi, Adarsh
AU - Labbe, Ivo
AU - Leja, Joel
AU - Maseda, Michael V.
AU - Matthee, Jorryt
AU - McConachie, Ian
AU - Naidu, Rohan P.
AU - Roberts-Borsani, Guido
AU - Schaerer, Daniel
AU - Suess, Katherine A.
AU - Valentino, Francesco
AU - van Dokkum, Pieter
AU - Wang, Bingjie
PY - 2025/4/10
Y1 - 2025/4/10
N2 - We report the spectroscopic discovery of a massive quiescent galaxy at z(spec) = 7.29 +/- 0.01, just similar to 700 Myr after the big bang. RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 was selected from public JWST/NIRCam and MIRI imaging from the PRIMER survey and observed with JWST/NIRSpec as part of RUBIES. The NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum reveals one of the strongest Balmer breaks observed thus far at z > 6, with no emission lines but tentative Balmer and Ca absorption features, as well as a Lyman break. Simultaneous modeling of the NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum and NIRCam and MIRI photometry (spanning 0.9-18 mu m) shows that the galaxy formed a stellar mass of log(M & lowast;/M-circle dot)=10.23(-0.04)(+0.04 )before z similar to 8 and ceased forming stars 50-100 Myr prior to the time of observation, resulting in log(sSFR/Gyr-1)<-1. We measure a small physical size of 209(-24)(+33)pc, which implies a high stellar-mass surface density within the effective radius of log(Sigma & lowast;,e/M(circle dot)kpc-2)=10.85(-0.12)(+0.11), comparable to the highest densities measured in quiescent galaxies at z similar to 2-5. The 3D stellar-mass density profile of RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 is remarkably similar to the central densities of local massive ellipticals, suggesting that at least some of their cores may have already been in place at z > 7. The discovery of RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 has strong implications for galaxy formation models: the estimated number density of quiescent galaxies at z similar to 7 is >100 x larger than predicted from any model to date, indicating that quiescent galaxies have formed earlier than previously expected
AB - We report the spectroscopic discovery of a massive quiescent galaxy at z(spec) = 7.29 +/- 0.01, just similar to 700 Myr after the big bang. RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 was selected from public JWST/NIRCam and MIRI imaging from the PRIMER survey and observed with JWST/NIRSpec as part of RUBIES. The NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum reveals one of the strongest Balmer breaks observed thus far at z > 6, with no emission lines but tentative Balmer and Ca absorption features, as well as a Lyman break. Simultaneous modeling of the NIRSpec/PRISM spectrum and NIRCam and MIRI photometry (spanning 0.9-18 mu m) shows that the galaxy formed a stellar mass of log(M & lowast;/M-circle dot)=10.23(-0.04)(+0.04 )before z similar to 8 and ceased forming stars 50-100 Myr prior to the time of observation, resulting in log(sSFR/Gyr-1)<-1. We measure a small physical size of 209(-24)(+33)pc, which implies a high stellar-mass surface density within the effective radius of log(Sigma & lowast;,e/M(circle dot)kpc-2)=10.85(-0.12)(+0.11), comparable to the highest densities measured in quiescent galaxies at z similar to 2-5. The 3D stellar-mass density profile of RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 is remarkably similar to the central densities of local massive ellipticals, suggesting that at least some of their cores may have already been in place at z > 7. The discovery of RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 has strong implications for galaxy formation models: the estimated number density of quiescent galaxies at z similar to 7 is >100 x larger than predicted from any model to date, indicating that quiescent galaxies have formed earlier than previously expected
KW - Stellar population synthesis
KW - Star-formation histories
KW - Less-than 5
KW - Active galactic nuclei
KW - High-redshift galaxies
KW - 1.5 billion years
KW - Passive galaxies
KW - Velocity dispersions
KW - Improved constraints
KW - Quenching mechanism
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=uwapure5-25&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001457334900001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105002359290
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/adab7a
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/adab7a
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 983
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 11
ER -