To be, or not to be: Balmer breaks in high-z galaxies with JWST

Abstract

ABSTRACT Standard models of structure formation allow us to predict the cosmic timescales relevant for the onset of star formation and the assembly history of galaxies at high redshifts (z > 10). The strength of the Balmer break represents a well-known diagnostic of the age and star formation history of galaxies, which enables us to compare observations with contemporary simulations – thus shedding light on the predictive power of our current models of star formation in the early Universe. Here, we measure the Balmer break strength for 23 spectroscopically confirmed galaxies at redshifts 6 ≲ z ≲ 12 using public JWST NIRSpec data from the cycle 1 GO 1433 and GO 2282 programmes (PI Coe), as well as public spectroscopic data from the JWST Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). We find that the range of observed Balmer break strengths agree well with that of current simulations given our measurement uncertainties. No cases of anomalously strong Balmer breaks are detected, and therefore no severe departures from the predictions of contemporary models of star formation. However, there are indications of a number of outliers in the observed distribution which have weaker Balmer breaks than predicted by simulations.