We study of the role of galaxy–galaxy interactions and disk instabilities in producing starburst activity in galaxies out to z = 4. For this, we use a sample of 387 galaxies with robust total star formation rate measurements from Herschel, gas masses from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, stellar masses and redshifts from multiband photometry, and JWST/NIRCam rest-frame optical imaging. Using mass-controlled samples, we find an increased fraction of interacting galaxies in the starburst regime at all redshifts out to z = 4. This increase correlates with star formation efficiency (SFE) but not with gas fraction. However, the correlation is weak (and only significant out to z = 2), which could be explained by the short duration of SFE increase during interaction. In addition, we find that isolated disk galaxies make up a significant fraction of the starburst population. The fraction of such galaxies with star-forming clumps ("clumpy disks") is significantly increased compared to the main-sequence disk population. Furthermore, this fraction directly correlates with SFE. This is direct observational evidence for a long-term increase of SFE maintained due to disk instabilities, contributing to the majority of starburst galaxies in our sample and hence to substantial mass growth in these systems. This result could also be of importance for explaining the growth of the most massive galaxies at z > 6.
COSMOS-Web: The Role of Galaxy Interactions and Disk Instabilities in Producing Starbursts at z < 4
- Creators
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Faisst, Andreas L.1, 2
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Yang, Lilan3
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Brinch, M.4, 5
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Casey, C. M.4, 6
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Chartab, N.7
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Dessauges-Zavadsky, M.8
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Drakos, N. E.9
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Gillman, S.4, 5
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Gozaliasl, G.10, 11
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Hayward, C. C.12
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Ilbert, O.13
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Jablonka, P.14
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Kaminsky, A.15
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Kartaltepe, J. S.3
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Koekemoer, A. M.16
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Kokorev, V.17
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Lambrides, E.18
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Liu, D.19
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Maraston, C.20
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Martin, C. L.21
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Renzini, A.22
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Robertson, B. E.23
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Sanders, D. B.24
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Sattari, Z.7, 25
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Scoville, N.1
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Urry, C. M.26
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Vijayan, A. P.4, 5
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Weaver, J. R.27
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Akins, H. B.6
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Allen, N.4
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Arango-Toro, R. C.13
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Cooper, O. R.6
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Franco, M.6
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Gentile, F.28, 29
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Harish, S.3
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Hirschmann, M.14, 30
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Khostovan, A. A.3, 18
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Laigle, C.31, 32
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Larson, R. L.6
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Lee, M.4, 5
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Liu, Z.33, 34
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Long, A. S.6
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Magdis, G.4, 5
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Massey, R.35
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McCracken, H. J.31, 32
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McKinney, J.6
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Paquereau, L.31, 32
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Rhodes, J.36
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Rich, R. M.37
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Shuntov, M.4
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Silverman, J. D.33, 34
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Talia, M.28, 29
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Toft, S.4
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Zavala, J. A.38
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1.
California Institute of Technology
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2.
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
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3.
Rochester Institute of Technology
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4.
University of Copenhagen
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5.
Technical University of Denmark
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6.
The University of Texas at Austin
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7.
Carnegie Observatories
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8.
University of Geneva
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9.
University of Hawaii at Hilo
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10.
Aalto University
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11.
University of Helsinki
- 12. Flatiron Institute
- 13. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
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14.
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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15.
University of Miami
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16.
Space Telescope Science Institute
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17.
University of Groningen
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18.
Goddard Space Flight Center
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19.
Purple Mountain Observatory
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20.
University of Portsmouth
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21.
University of California, Santa Barbara
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22.
Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
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23.
University of California, Santa Cruz
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24.
University of Hawaii at Manoa
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25.
University of California, Riverside
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26.
Yale University
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27.
University of Massachusetts System
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28.
University of Bologna
- 29. INAF, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio, Via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129, Bologna, Italy
- 30. INAF, Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
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31.
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
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32.
Sorbonne University
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33.
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
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34.
University of Tokyo
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35.
Durham University
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36.
Jet Propulsion Lab
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37.
University of California, Los Angeles
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38.
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
The JWST data presented in this article were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The specific observations analyzed can be accessed via doi:10.17909/ph8h-qf05.
We thank the anonymous referee for the suggestions, which substantially improved this manuscript. Support for this work was provided by NASA grants JWST-GO-01727 and HST-AR15802 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. C.M.C. thanks the National Science Foundation for support through grants AST-1814034 and AST-2009577 as well as the University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences for support. C.M.C. also acknowledges support from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement from a 2019 Cottrell Scholar Award sponsored by IF/THEN, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies. The French part of the COSMOS team is partly supported by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). O.I. acknowledges the funding of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for the project iMAGE (grant ANR-22-CE31-0007). This work was made possible by utilizing the CANDIDE cluster at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. The cluster was funded through grants from the PNCG, CNES, DIM-ACAV, the Euclid Consortium, and the Danish National Research Foundation Cosmic Dawn Center (DNRF140). It is maintained by Stephane Rouberol. S.G. acknowledges financial support from the Villum Young Investigator grants 37440 and 13160 and the Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) under grant DNRF140.
Facilities
ALMA - Atacama Large Millimeter Array, Herschel - European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory, JWST - James Webb Space Telescope.
Software References
astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018); PhotUtils (L. Bradley et al. 2024); SExtractor (E. Bertin & S. Arnouts 1996); statmorph (V. Rodriguez-Gomez et al. 2019); WebbPSF (M. D. Perrin et al. 2014).
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Additional details
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- JWST-GO-01727
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- HST-AR15802
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NAS 5-26555
- National Science Foundation
- AST-1814034
- National Science Foundation
- AST-2009577
- The University of Texas System
- University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences -
- Research Corporation for Science Advancement
- 2019 Cottrell Scholar Award -
- Lyda Hill Philanthropies
- Centre National d'Études Spatiales
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- ANR-22-CE31-0007
- Danish National Research Foundation
- DNRF140
- Villum Fonden
- 37440
- Villum Fonden
- 13160
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NASA Postdoctoral Program -
- National Science Foundation
- Graduate Research Fellowship Program -
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NASA Hubble Fellowship -
- Accepted
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2024-12-18Accepted
- Available
-
2025-02-14Published
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
- Publication Status
- Published