Deep into the structure of the first galaxies: SERRA views

We study the formation and evolution of a sample of Lyman break galaxies in the epoch of reionization by using high-resolution (similar to 10 pc), cosmological zoom-in simulations part of the SERRA suite. In SERRA, we follow the interstellar medium thermochemical non-equilibrium evolution and perform on-the-fly radiative transfer of the interstellar radiation field (ISRF). The simulation outputs are post-processed to compute the emission of far infrared lines ([C II], [N II], and [O III]). At z = 8, the most massive galaxy, 'Freesia', has an age t(star) similar or equal to 409 Myr, stellar mass M-star similar or equal to 4.2 x 10(9)M(circle dot), and a star formation rate (SFR), SFR similar or equal to 11.5M(circle dot) yr(-1), due to a recent burst. Freesia has two stellar components (A and B) separated by similar or equal to 2.5 kpc; other 11 galaxies are found within 56.9 +/- 21.6 kpc. The mean ISRF in the Habing band is G = 7.9G(0) and is spatially uniform; in contrast, the ionization parameter is U = 2(-2)(+20) x 10(-3), and has a patchy distribution peaked at the location of star-forming sites. The resulting ionizing escape fraction from Freesia is f(esc) similar or equal to 2 per cent. While [C II] emission is extended (radius 1.54 kpc), [O III] is concentrated in Freesia-Lambda (0.85 kpc), where the ratio Sigma([O III])/Sigma([C II]) similar or equal to 10. As many high-z galaxies, Freesia lies below the local [C II]-SFR relation. We show that this is the general consequence of a starburst phase (pushing the galaxy above the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation) that disrupts/photodissociates the emitting molecular clouds around star-forming sites. Metallicity has a sub-dominant impact on the amplitude of [C II]-SFR deviations.