The ALMA View of High-Redshift Galaxy Formation

Smit, R ORCID: 0000-0001-8034-7802 and Bowler, RAA (2026) The ALMA View of High-Redshift Galaxy Formation. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 64 (1). pp. 493-535. ISSN 0066-4146

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Abstract

The advent of routine operations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the past decade has led to a revolution in the direct study of the interstellar medium (ISM) in “normal” high-redshift galaxies in the rest-frame far-infrared (FIR). This review summarizes the observational literature on z > 6.5 sources observed with ALMA and NOEMA (NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array). The main findings are as follows: ▪ Cool gas consistently scales with star formation in a wide range of galaxy environments, similar to local relations, suggesting that fundamental processes of star formation have stayed relatively constant over 13 billion years of cosmic time. ▪ Significant metal enrichment is present in galaxies just ∼300–400 million years after the Big Bang. ▪ There is a trend to a higher obscured fraction of star formation with stellar mass and star-formation rate (SFR) already in place at z ∽ 7, with measurements of the cosmic SFR density showing that >10% of the SFR density is obscured at this epoch. ▪ The estimated dust masses compared to the stellar mass suggest that rapid dust enrichment occurs, likely from supernovae with little dust destruction and/or rapid growth in the ISM, which is in agreement with maximal predictions from models. ▪ In individual sources, cold disks are already in existence, with their gas disks being more extended and smoother than their observed stellar counterparts.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Annual Reviews
Date of acceptance:	28 May 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	15 September 2026
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2026 14:19
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2026 14:19
DOI or ID number:	10.1146/annurev-astro-052722-104242
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29435

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