THE PROPERTIES OF HIGH REDSHIFT GALAXIES

This work studies the connection between the first galaxies and their hosting dark matter halos in the early Universe when reionization is concluding. Our numerical models (already presented in an earlier study) trace the star formation history at z = 4 - 8, the galaxy stellar mass function, the stellar-to-halo mass distribution, and other high redshift galaxies statistics. All these predictions are consistent with observations to date and with other high-resolution cosmological simulations. A key finding of this work is the robust estimate of the cosmic star formation history (through the implementation of galaxy and supernova winds and atomic and molecular cooling processes) and self-consistent chemical pollution of the intergalactic medium. The theoretical models are compatible with a faint-end slope of the galaxy luminosity function of α = −2 at the end of reionization.