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  • Review Article
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Feedback in low-mass galaxies in the early Universe

Abstract

The formation, evolution and death of massive stars release large quantities of energy and momentum into the gas surrounding the sites of star formation. This process, generically termed ‘feedback’, inhibits further star formation either by removing gas from the galaxy, or by heating it to temperatures that are too high to form new stars. Observations reveal feedback in the form of galactic-scale outflows of gas in galaxies with high rates of star formation, especially in the early Universe. Feedback in faint, low-mass galaxies probably facilitated the escape of ionizing radiation from galaxies when the Universe was about 500 million years old, so that the hydrogen between galaxies changed from neutral to ionized—the last major phase transition in the Universe.

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Figure 1: The local starburst galaxy M82 observed with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Figure 2: The ratio of stellar to halo masses as a function of halo mass in the local Universe.
Figure 3: A moderately low-resolution rest-frame ultraviolet spectrum of a typical star-forming galaxy at redshift z ≈ 2–3.
Figure 4: Two schematic models of a spherical galactic outflow.
Figure 5: Low ionization interstellar absorption line profiles of the z = 2.73 gravitationally lensed galaxy MS1512-cB58.
Figure 6: The velocity offset of Lyα emission as a function of ultraviolet luminosity and velocity dispersion, for z ≈ 2–3 galaxies selected by strong Lyα emission.

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Acknowledgements

I thank M. Pettini for comments, suggestions, and assistance with figures, and C. Steidel, M. Pettini, A. Shapley, N. Reddy and C. Martin for many discussions and collaborations.

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Correspondence to Dawn K. Erb.

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Erb, D. Feedback in low-mass galaxies in the early Universe. Nature 523, 169–176 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14454

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