SIMBAD references

In this paper, we present the first results from the Renaissance Simulations, a suite of extremely high-resolution and physics-rich AMR calculations of high-redshift galaxy formation performed on the Blue Waters supercomputer. These simulations contain hundreds of well-resolved galaxies at, and make several novel, testable predictions. Most critically, we show that the ultraviolet luminosity function of our simulated galaxies is consistent with observations of high-z galaxy populations at the bright end of the luminosity function, but at lower luminosities is essentially flat rather than rising steeply, as has been inferred by Schechter function fits to high-z observations, and has a clearly defined lower limit in UV luminosity. This behavior of the luminosity function is due to two factors: (i) the strong dependence of the star formation rate (SFR) on halo virial mass in our simulated galaxy population, with lower-mass halos having systematically lower SFRs and thus lower UV luminosities; and (ii) the fact that halos with virial masses below do not universally contain stars, with the fraction of halos containing stars dropping to zero at. Finally, we show that the brightest of our simulated galaxies may be visible to current and future ultra-deep space-based surveys, particularly if lensed regions are chosen for observation.