Dust and hydrogen molecules in the extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxy SBS 0335–052

Abstract

During the early stages of galaxy evolution, the metallicity is generally low and nearby metal-poor star-forming galaxies may provide templates for primordial star formation. In particular, the dust content of such objects is of great importance, because early molecular formation can take place on grains. To gain insight into primeval galaxies at high redshift, we examine the dust content of the nearby extremely low-metallicity galaxy SBS 0335–052 which hosts a very young starburst (≲107yr). In young galaxies, the dust formation rate in Type II supernovae governs the amount of dust, and by incorporating recent results on dust production in Type II supernovae we model the evolution of dust content. If the star-forming region is compact (≲100 pc), as suggested by observations of SBS 0335–052, our models consistently explain the quantity of dust, far-infrared luminosity, and dust temperature in this low-metallicity object. We also discuss the H2 abundance. The compactness of the region is important to H2 formation, because the optical depth of dust for UV photons becomes large and H2 dissociation is suppressed. We finally focus on implications for damped Lyα systems.