Publication Date
1-1-2025
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume
536
Issue
2
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stae2665
First Page
1878
Last Page
1893
Abstract
High-resolution imaging and strong gravitational lensing of high-redshift galaxies have enabled the detection of compact sources with properties similar to nearby massive star clusters. Often found to be very young, these sources may be globular clusters detected in their earliest stages. In this work, we compare predictions of high-redshift (-10) star cluster properties from the E-MOSAICS simulation of galaxy and star cluster formation with those of the star cluster candidates in strongly lensed galaxies from JWST and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging. We select galaxies in the simulation that match the luminosities of the majority of lensed galaxies with star cluster candidates observed with JWST. We find that the luminosities, ages, and masses of the brightest star cluster candidates in the high-redshift galaxies are consistent with the E-MOSAICS model. In particular, the brightest cluster ages are in excellent agreement. The results suggest that star clusters in both low- and high-redshift galaxies may form via common mechanisms. However, the brightest clusters in the lensed galaxies tend to be - brighter and dex more massive than the median E-MOSAICS predictions. We discuss the large number of effects that could explain the discrepancy, including simulation and observational limitations, stellar population models, cluster detection biases, and nuclear star clusters. Understanding these limitations would enable stronger tests of globular cluster formation models.
Funding Number
DP220101863
Funding Sponsor
Space Telescope Science Institute
Keywords
galaxies: high redshift, galaxies: star clusters: general, globular clusters: general
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Physics and Astronomy
Recommended Citation
Joel Pfeffer, Duncan A. Forbes, Aaron J. Romanowsky, Nate Bastian, Robert A. Crain, J. M.Diederik Kruijssen, Kenji Bekki, Jean P. Brodie, Mélanie Chevance, Warrick J. Couch, and Jonah S. Gannon. "Comparing E-MOSAICS predictions of high-redshift proto-globular clusters with JWST observations in lensed galaxies" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2025): 1878-1893. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2665
Comments
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.