REVIEW 4 major objections 3 minor 1 cited by
COSMOS-Web: Star formation along the early Hubble sequence and the evolution of dust over the redshift range 0<z<12
T0 review · 4 major / 3 minor · reviewed 2026-05-21 · grok-4.3
Pith's one-line read Mean star-formation rates in the most massive galaxies fall along the Hubble sequence from irregular to spheroid types between redshifts 2 and 4.5, showing quenching began shortly after the sequence emerged.
desk verdict Stacking on COSMOS-Web gives new quantitative SFR trends along the Hubble sequence at 2<z<4.5 and a working dust evolution model, but the no-AGN assumption in the 850um stacks is the main thing to check. read the letter →
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
The reading
What carries the argument
Stacking of SCUBA-2 850-micron images for galaxies classified by morphology along the Hubble sequence and stellar mass
What would settle it
A measurement showing that AGN contribute more than a few tens of percent of the stacked 850-micron flux for the high-redshift samples, or a reclassification of the same galaxies with higher-resolution imaging that removes the systematic drop in star-formation rate from irregulars to spheroids.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
Stacking analysis of 850-micron emission reveals that, for the most massive galaxies, mean star-formation rate declines along the Hubble sequence from irregular galaxies at one end to spheroids at the other in the redshift window 2<z<4.5. This trend indicates that quenching was already operating soon after the Hubble sequence appeared. The decline can be matched by a starvation model with a depletion time of 10^8.2 years, while the observed growth in number density of massive bulge-dominated and spheroidal galaxies between 1.5<z<4 is reproduced by the transformation of submillimetre galaxies. A chemical-evolution model built on the cosmic star-formation history and equal gas outflow rate is,
Load-bearing premise
The 850-micron stacked emission is produced almost entirely by dust heated by star formation with negligible AGN or other contamination, and that morphological types remain reliably assigned at redshifts above 2.
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