{
  "abstract": "JWST has revealed that star formation in early galaxies is bursty, including episodes of violent suppression, so-called mini-quenching. But these were largely serendipitous discoveries in samples of UV-bright, emission-line-dominated galaxies, so that the quiet side of the burst cycle has remained poorly explored. With the JWST Cycle 3 program OASIS (GO 5997), we searched for such galaxies deliberately, using deep 28-hour NIRSpec/PRISM spectroscopy across the full burst cycle at z>4. We identify three mini-quenched galaxies with log(M*/Msun) = 8.3-8.9 and no detectable Balmer emission, at least 1.2-1.7 dex below the star-forming main sequence (SFMS), five lulling galaxies with weak Balmer emission above the quenching threshold, and 17 nearly-main-sequence galaxies just below the SFMS. Finding them required spectroscopy: seven of our ten photometric candidates for suppressed (mini-quenched and lulling) galaxies turned out to be nearly-MS or above the SFMS, and photometric fits overestimate their current star-formation rates and cannot distinguish lulling from mini-quenched ones. The suppressed galaxies are common: five of the eight come from tiers not selected on star-formation state, where they make up 29% of the galaxies at z = 4-5.5 and log(M*/Msun) = 8-9.5, a number density of ~1.6x10^-3 Mpc^-3 dex^-1. Simulations predict them to be an order of magnitude rarer at these masses and to occur mainly at lower masses. The suppressed galaxies are also old: Balmer-break strength and stellar age both increase as galaxies fall further below the SFMS, with light-weighted ages of 5 Myr for galaxies above it, ~30 Myr for the lulling galaxies and above 100 Myr for the mini-quenched ones. They show little stellar reddening (E(B-V) < 0.2), consistent with depleted gas reservoirs. Suppressed phases at z>4 are therefore neither rare nor brief, but a common and lasting part of early galaxy growth.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.41489",
  "author_total": 22,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Tobias J. Looser"
    },
    {
      "name": "Francesco D'Eugenio"
    },
    {
      "name": "William M. Baker"
    },
    {
      "name": "Santiago Arribas"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andrew J. Bunker"
    },
    {
      "name": "Stefano Carniani"
    },
    {
      "name": "Stéphane Charlot"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jacopo Chevallard"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mirko Curti"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qiao Duan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kevin Hainline"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jakob M. Helton"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yuki Isobe"
    },
    {
      "name": "Benjamin D. Johnson"
    },
    {
      "name": "Pierluigi Rinaldi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Brant Robertson"
    },
    {
      "name": "Fengwu Sun"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sandro Tacchella"
    },
    {
      "name": "James A. A. Trussler"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hannah Übler"
    },
    {
      "name": "Joris Witstok"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zihao Wu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cmwmv8kjcak2p.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.41489",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "cmwmv8kjcak2p",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41489",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.41489",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-30",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cmwmv8kjcak2p.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:21:15Z",
      "native_id": "2610.41489",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41489"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "OASIS I: Spectroscopy of Mini-Quenched and Lulling Galaxies Constrains the Quiet Side of Bursty Star Formation at z > 4",
  "title_text": "OASIS I: Spectroscopy of Mini-Quenched and Lulling Galaxies Constrains the Quiet Side of Bursty Star Formation at z > 4",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T15:20:51Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cmwmv8kjcak2p",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}