Quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon: from individual element abundances to star formation histories
Abstract
Understanding the formation and early evolution of massive quiescent galaxies is crucial for a complete picture of galaxy formation in a cosmological context. Such a comprehensive picture can be obtained through measurements of individual elemental abundances, which encode the timescales and physical conditions of their star-formation and assembly histories. While extensive work at low and intermediate redshift has revealed strong correlations between stellar mass, metallicity, and abundance ratios, studies at z ~ 2-3 remain extremely limited. Their faintness and compactness make medium-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy for detailed chemical analysis extremely challenging. We present a science case to measure full elemental abundance patterns in a representative sample of massive quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon, exploiting rest-frame optical absorption features. We show that deriving robust stellar population constraints for these systems requires spectra with S/N ~ 20 per resolution element, together with a spatial resolution comparable to their ~ 0.1 arcsec sizes. We show that such requirements can only be met with a 40m class telescope equipped with a powerful adaptive optics system. In this context, SHARP-NEXUS, in combination with MORFEO-MCAO capabilities, emerges as the only viable ELT instrument capable of enabling this science, providing both the sensitivity and angular resolution needed. Although massive quiescent galaxies are rare at these redshifts, their study can efficiently exploit the instrument's multiplexing by targeting galaxy overdensities and coordinating with surveys of star-forming galaxies. Such synergistic strategies, proven feasible in high-redshift clusters and by multiplex-sharing facilities like 4MOST, would allow SHARP-NEXUS to open a new window on the chemical enrichment of the earliest massive galaxies.
Related
- The Star Formation Histories of Different Components of M31's Halo from Photometric Estimates of Fe and α Abundances
- Precise C-N-O Abundances of Individual Galaxies in the First Billion Years from Ultra-Deep, Rest-UV-to-Optical JWST Spectroscopy
- How Quickly Did the Giants Form? Constraining the Formation Timescales of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Using Chemical Evolution Modelling
- Investigating the star formation histories of galaxies from Cosmic Dawn to the Epoch of Reionization with the Santa Cruz SAM
- DeepDive: Simultaneous Formation of Massive Quiescent Galaxies in High-redshift Galaxy Overdensities
BibTeX
@misc{longhetti2026quiescent,
title = {{Quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon: from individual element abundances to star formation histories}},
author = {M. Longhetti and F. R. Ditrani and D. Bevacqua and G. De Lucia and A. Gallazzi and A. Gargiulo and F. La Barbera and C. Maraston and D. Thomas and P. Franzetti and C. Mancini and L. Scholz-Díaz and S. Zibetti},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.06331},
eprint = {2611.06331},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06331},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon: from individual element abundances to star formation histories
AU - M. Longhetti
AU - F. R. Ditrani
AU - D. Bevacqua
AU - G. De Lucia
AU - A. Gallazzi
AU - A. Gargiulo
AU - F. La Barbera
AU - C. Maraston
AU - D. Thomas
AU - P. Franzetti
AU - C. Mancini
AU - L. Scholz-Díaz
AU - S. Zibetti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.06331
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06331
AB - Understanding the formation and early evolution of massive quiescent galaxies is crucial for a complete picture of galaxy formation in a cosmological context. Such a comprehensive picture can be obtained through measurements of individual elemental abundances, which encode the timescales and physical conditions of their star-formation and assembly histories. While extensive work at low and intermediate redshift has revealed strong correlations between stellar mass, metallicity, and abundance ratios, studies at z ~ 2-3 remain extremely limited. Their faintness and compactness make medium-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy for detailed chemical analysis extremely challenging. We present a science case to measure full elemental abundance patterns in a representative sample of massive quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon, exploiting rest-frame optical absorption features. We show that deriving robust stellar population constraints for these systems requires spectra with S/N ~ 20 per resolution element, together with a spatial resolution comparable to their ~ 0.1 arcsec sizes. We show that such requirements can only be met with a 40m class telescope equipped with a powerful adaptive optics system. In this context, SHARP-NEXUS, in combination with MORFEO-MCAO capabilities, emerges as the only viable ELT instrument capable of enabling this science, providing both the sensitivity and angular resolution needed. Although massive quiescent galaxies are rare at these redshifts, their study can efficiently exploit the instrument's multiplexing by targeting galaxy overdensities and coordinating with surveys of star-forming galaxies. Such synergistic strategies, proven feasible in high-redshift clusters and by multiplex-sharing facilities like 4MOST, would allow SHARP-NEXUS to open a new window on the chemical enrichment of the earliest massive galaxies.
ER -