COSMOS-Web: The Role of Galaxy Interactions and Disk Instabilities in Producing Starbursts at z<4

Understand

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 ALMA, stellar masses and redshifts from multi-band 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.