Recent stacked ALMA observations have revealed that normal, star-forming galaxies at z ≈ 6 are surrounded by extended (≈10 kpc) [C ii]-emitting haloes, which are not predicted by the most advanced, zoom-in simulations. We present a model in which these haloes are the result of supernova-driven cooling outflows. Our model contains two free parameters, the outflow mass loading factor, η, and the parent galaxy dark matter halo circular velocity, vc. The outflow model successfully matches the observed [C ii] surface brightness profile if η = 3.20 ± 0.10 and $v_{\rm c} = 170 \pm 10 \, \rm km\, s^{-1}$, corresponding to a dynamical mass of ${\approx }10^{11}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$. The predicted outflow rate and velocity range are $128 \pm 5\, {\rm M}_{\odot }\, {\rm yr}^{-1}$ and 300–500 $\, \rm km\, s^{-1}$, respectively. We conclude that (a) extended haloes can be produced by cooling outflows; (b) the large η value is marginally consistent with starburst-driven outflows, but it might indicate additional energy input from active galactic nuclei; and (c) the presence of [C ii] haloes requires an ionizing photon escape fraction from galaxies fesc ≪ 1. The model can be readily applied also to individual high-z galaxies, as those observed, e.g. by the ALMA ALPINE survey now becoming available.

We introduce SERRA, a suite of zoom-in high-resolution (1.2 × 104 M⊙, ≃ 25 pc at z = 7.7) cosmological simulations including non-equilibrium chemistry and on-the-fly radiative transfer. The outputs are post-processed to derive galaxy UV+FIR continuum and emission line properties. Results are compared with available multi-wavelength data to constrain the physical properties (e.g. star formation rates, stellar/gas/dust mass, metallicity) of high-redshift 6 ≲ z ≲ 15 galaxies. This flagship paper focuses on the z = 7.7 sub-sample, including 202 galaxies with stellar mass 107 M⊙ ≲ M⋆ ≲ 5 × 1010 M⊙, and specific star formation ranging from sSFR ∼ 100 Gyr−1 in young, low-mass galaxies to ∼10 Gyr−1 for older, massive ones. At this redshift, serra galaxies are typically bursty, i.e. they are located above the Schmidt-Kennicutt relation by a factor $\kappa _s = 3.03^{+4.9}_{-1.8}$, consistent with recent findings for [O iii] and [C ii] emitters at high-z. They also show relatively large IRX =LFIR/LUV values as a result of their compact/clumpy morphology effectively blocking the stellar UV luminosity. Note that this conclusion might be affected by insufficient spatial resolution at the molecular cloud level. We confirm that early galaxies lie on the standard [C ii]$-\rm SFR$ relation; their observed L[OIII]/L[CII] ≃ 1 − 10 ratios can be reproduced by a part of the SERRA galaxies without the need of a top-heavy IMF and/or anomalous C/O abundances. [O i] line intensities are similar to local ones, making ALMA high-z detections challenging but feasible ($\sim 6\, \rm hr$ for an SFR of 50  M⊙ yr−1).

Cit a tio n fo r fin al p u blis h e d ve r sio n: Pizz a ti, Eli a, S a c h d ev, S u r a b hi, G u p t a , An u r a d h a a n d S a t hy a p r a k a s h , B. S. ORCID: h t t p s://o r ci d.