Pith. sign in

REVIEW 3 cited by

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2208.00986 v3 pith:L4UXV77S submitted 2022-08-01 astro-ph.GA

A surprising abundance of massive quiescent galaxies at 3 < z < 5 in the first data from JWST CEERS

classification astro-ph.GA
keywords galaxiesquiescentjwstnumberdatadensitiesfirstimaging
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

We report a robust sample of 10 massive quiescent galaxies at redshift, $z > 3$, selected using the first data from the JWST CEERS programme. Three of these galaxies are at $4 < z < 5$, constituting the best evidence to date for quiescent galaxies significantly before $z=4$. These extreme galaxies have stellar masses in the range log$_{10}(M_*/$M$_\odot) = 10.1-11.1$, and formed the bulk of their mass around $z \simeq 10$, with two objects having star-formation histories that suggest they had already reached log$_{10}(M_*/$M$_\odot) > 10$ by $z\gtrsim8$. We report number densities for our sample, demonstrating that, based on the small area of JWST imaging so far available, previous work appears to have underestimated the number of quiescent galaxies at $3 < z < 4$ by a factor of $3-5$, due to a lack of ultra-deep imaging data at $\lambda>2\,\mu$m. This result deepens the existing tension between observations and theoretical models, which already struggle to reproduce previous estimates of $z>3$ quiescent galaxy number densities. Upcoming wider-area JWST imaging surveys will provide larger samples of such galaxies and more-robust number densities, as well as providing opportunities to search for quiescent galaxies at $z>5$. The galaxies we report are excellent potential targets for JWST NIRSpec spectroscopy, which will be required to understand in detail their physical properties, providing deeper insights into the processes responsible for forming massive galaxies and quenching star formation during the first billion years.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. First detection of ultra-fast outflows in a quiescent galaxy

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0

    First detection of an ultra-fast outflow (v≈0.07c) in a quiescent galaxy quenched ~9 Gyr ago, suggesting AGN winds can maintain quiescence independent of global star formation.

  2. Extended [CII] gas emission in and around a massive quiescent galaxy at z=7.3

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Extended [CII] emission reveals a large cold gas halo around the z=7.27 quiescent galaxy RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7, with gas mass estimates indicating f_gas >20% and possible past AGN-driven outflow.

  3. High-ionization coronal lines trace quasar-like activity in recently quenched galaxies at high redshift

    astro-ph.GA 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Detection of [NeV]λ3427 in six recently quenched high-redshift galaxies reveals quasar-like SMBH activity persisting 100-200 Myr after the main quenching epoch.