The galaxy ultraviolet luminosity function from z = 7 to 20 in the COLIBRE simulations
Clicks: 1
ID: 330702
2026
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This
article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score —
reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
Reader Engagement
0.0
/100
1 views
0 readers
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Ranked #1,121 of 1,125 articles by views in monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Most read
Least read
Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 1,125 in total.
Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet mintedCreate a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.
5
SUSD
one-off · no wallet required
Abstract
Abstract JWST has enabled the detection of galaxies in the earliest stages of cosmic history. We compare the ultraviolet luminosity functions (UVLFs) at redshifts z = 7 − 20 predicted by a set of new cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, colibre, with observations, including those from JWST. The UV luminosities of colibre galaxies are derived using the radiative transfer code skirt, which tracks stellar emission and its processing through the multi-phase interstellar medium and dust distribution predicted by colibre. We find that although colibre is consistent with the observed evolution of the stellar mass function up to z = 12, its dust-attenuated UVLFs fall systematically below the observations at the bright end: at the number density of 10−6 Mpc−3 mag−1, the brightest galaxies are underluminous by $\approx 1\, \rm mag$ at z = 7, increasing to $\approx 2.5\, \rm mag$ at z = 15. Accounting for observational uncertainties brings the colibre UVLFs closer to the observational data, but does not fully resolve the discrepancy. Ignoring dust attenuation allows colibre to produce sufficiently bright galaxies at 7 ≲ z ≲ 12, but at z = 15, colibre still underpredicts the luminosities of the brightest galaxies, indicating the need for additional physical mechanisms to boost the UV luminosities at the earliest cosmic epochs, such as a ‘top-heavy’ stellar initial mass function. We fit the colibre UVLFs with Schechter functions and calculate the evolution of the best-fit parameters. We find that the galaxy number density decreases, the characteristic luminosity becomes fainter and the faint-end slope becomes steeper towards higher redshifts. The UV luminosity density decreases by a factor of several hundred from z = 7 to z = 15.
| Reference Key |
openalex_W7214962574
Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using
SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
|
|---|---|
| Authors | Shengdong Lu, Carlos S. Frenk, Cedric G. Lacey, Andrea Gebek, Joop Schaye, Shaun Cole, Sownak Bose, Anna Durrant, Nick Andreadis, M. Baes, Alejandro Benítez-Llambay, Evgenii Chaikin, Camila A. Correa, Robert A. Crain, Filip Huško, Robert J. McGibbon, Sylvia Ploeckinger, Alexander J. Richings, Matthieu Schaller, James W. Trayford |
| Journal | monthly notices of the royal astronomical society |
| Year | 2026 |
| DOI |
10.1093/mnras/stag1846
|
| URL | |
| Keywords | Keywords not found |
Citations
No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.