On the origin of star formation quenching in massive galaxies at $z \gtrsim 3$ in the cosmological simulations IllustrisTNG

Understand

Using the cosmological simulations IllustrisTNG, we perform a comprehensive analysis of quiescent, massive galaxies at $z \gtrsim 3$.

• The goal is to understand what suppresses their star formation so early in cosmic time, and how other similar mass galaxies remain highly star-forming.
• As a first-order result, the simulations are able to produce massive, quiescent galaxies in this high-redshift regime.
• We find that active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback is the primary cause of halting star formation in early, massive galaxies.