Lyman-Alpha Pressure Emerges as Key Sculptor of Compact Cosmic Dawn Galaxies
Lyα radiation pressure permits high star-formation efficiencies in dense cosmic-dawn clusters while launching rapid outflows from lower-density gas, offering a unified explanation for JWST's compact, bursty early galaxies.
Post-processing radiation-hydrodynamic snapshots with the COLT Monte Carlo radiative transfer code reveals that Lyman-alpha radiation pressure exerts only modest suppression on star-formation efficiency in the densest filaments (n ≳ 10^4 cm^{-3}), where f_Edd remains sub-unity and ε* exceeds 60 percent even at 0.01 solar dust-to-gas ratios. This stands in contrast to local molecular clouds where efficiencies hover below 10 percent, highlighting how the extreme surface densities (Σ* ≳ 10^3 M⊙ pc^{-2}) and low metallicities of z ≳ 10 systems allow rapid stellar mass assembly before feedback can act. The bulk volume at lower densities (n ≲ 10^3 cm^{-3}) reaches f_Edd ≳ 10, enabling Lyα to drive outflows on timescales shorter than 4 Myr—potentially clearing channels for ionizing photons and contributing to the high escape fractions inferred from JWST spectra. The force multiplier scales sharply with dust abundance, rising from ≲3 at 0.1 Z⊙ to ≲500 in dust-free gas, yet Lyα still dominates UV and IR pressure by factors of 3–500 across this range. This preprint (arXiv:2605.13982) extends earlier analytic work on Lyα trapping (e.g., Dijkstra & Loeb 2008) and recent JWST identifications of ultra-compact star-forming regions (e.g., Morishita et al. 2024) by quantifying the transition from momentum-driven winds to locally efficient bursts. Limitations include the use of fixed snapshots rather than live radiation-hydrodynamics coupling and the assumption of uniform dust geometries that may underestimate scattering in clumpy media.
HELIX: Lyα pressure supplies the missing link between JWST's ultra-dense early clusters and their rapid transition to outflow-dominated phases, explaining both high efficiencies and elevated ionizing-photon escape.
Sources (3)
- [1]Primary Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13982)
- [2]Related JWST Compact Galaxies(https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.04248)
- [3]Lyα Feedback Theory(https://arxiv.org/abs/0806.0371)