Fig. 5: Redshift evolution of the electron density.
From: A luminous and young galaxy at z = 12.33 revealed by a JWST/MIRI detection of Hα and [O iii]
Compilation of spectroscopically derived measurements of ionized gas electron density (with 1σ error bars) in galaxies at different redshifts (adapted from ref. 46 and including other measurements45,83, with different symbols for different references) along with the constraints inferred for our target, GHZ2, at z = 12.33 (formally upper limits; dark red hexagon for Te = 30,000 K and light red hexagon for Te = 10,000 K). Our results support the evolution towards higher electron densities at high redshifts, which might be associated with the high ionization parameters and high SFR surface densities of the bright population of high-redshift galaxies recently discovered with JWST. ID4590 identifies a particular galaxy at z = 8.5 (refs. 38,83).
