Abstract

Using a high-resolution cosmological numerical simulation, we have analyzed the evolution of galaxies at z ~ 10 in a highly overdense region of the universe. These objects could represent the high-redshift galaxies recently observed by the Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and could as well be possible precursors of QSOs at z ~ 6-7. To overcome the sampling and resolution problems in cosmological simulations of these rare regions, we have used the constrained realizations method. Our main result for z ~ 10 shows the high-resolution central region of 3.5 h–1 Mpc radius in comoving coordinates being completely dominated by disk galaxies in the total mass range of ≳ 109 h–1 M☉. We have verified that the gaseous and stellar disks we identify are robust morphological features, capable of surviving the ongoing merger process at these redshifts. Below this mass range, we find a sharp decline in the disk fraction to negligible numbers. At this redshift, the disks appear to be gas-rich compared to z = 0, and the dark matter halos baryon-rich, by a factor of ~2-3 above the average fraction of baryons in the universe. The dominance of disk galaxies in the high-density peaks during the epoch of re-ionization is contrary to the morphology-density trend observed at low redshifts.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-17-2011

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, v. 738, no. 2, L19, p. 1-5.

© 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/738/2/L19

Funding Information

I.S. acknowledges partial support by NASA and the NSF grants. M.T. acknowledges support by the University of Colorado ATP through grants from NASA and NSF.

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