First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) VIII. The Emergence of Passive Galaxies at $z \geqslant 5$

Understand

Passive galaxies are ubiquitous in the local universe, and various physical channels have been proposed that lead to this passivity.

• To date, robust passive galaxy candidates have been detected up to $z \leqslant 5$, but it is still unknown if they exist at higher redshifts, what their relative abundances are, and what causes them to stop forming stars.
• We present predictions from the First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES), a series of zoom simulations of a range of overdensities using the EAGLE code.
• Passive galaxies occur naturally in the EAGLE model at high redshift, and are in good agreement with number density estimates from HST and early JWST results at $3 \leqslant z \leqslant 5$.