Dust Spectral Energy Distribution Research Articles

The Resolved Behavior of Dust Mass, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Fraction, and Radiation Field in ∼800 Nearby Galaxies

We present resolved 3.6–250 μm dust spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting for ∼800 nearby galaxies. We measure the distribution of radiation field intensities heating the dust, the dust mass surface density (Σd), and the fraction of dust in the form of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; q PAH). We find that the average interstellar radiation field ( U¯ ) is correlated both with stellar mass surface density (Σ⋆) and star formation rate surface density (ΣSFR), while more intense radiation fields are only correlated with ΣSFR. We show that q PAH is a steeply decreasing function of ΣSFR, likely reflecting PAH destruction in H ii regions. Galaxy-integrated q PAH is strongly, negatively correlated with specific star formation rate (sSFR) and offset from the star-forming “main sequence” (ΔMS), suggesting that both metallicity and star formation intensity play a role in setting the global q PAH. We also find a nearly constant M d/M * ratio for galaxies on the main sequence, with a lower ratio for more quiescent galaxies, likely due to their lower gas fractions. From these results, we construct prescriptions to estimate the radiation field distribution in both integrated and resolved galaxies. We test these prescriptions by comparing our predicted U¯ to results of SED fitting for stacked “main-sequence” galaxies at 0 < z < 4 from M. Béthermin et al. and find sSFR is an accurate predictor of U¯ even at these high redshifts. Finally, we describe the public delivery of matched-resolution Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and Herschel maps along with the resolved dust SED-fitting results through the Infrared Science Archive.

The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: Dust temperature and physical conditions of the interstellar medium in a typical galaxy at z = 5.66

We present new λrest = 77 μm dust continuum observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of HZ10 (CRISTAL-22). This dusty main sequence galaxy at z = 5.66 was observed as part of the [CII] Resolved Ism in STar-forming Alma Large program (CRISTAL). The high angular resolution of the ALMA Band 7 and new Band 9 data (∼0′′​​.4) reveals the complex structure of HZ10, which comprises two main components (HZ10-C and HZ10-W), along with a bridge-like dusty emission between them (i.e., “the bridge”). Using a modified blackbody function to model the dust spectral energy distribution (SED), we constrained the physical conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM) and its variations among the different components identified in HZ10. We find that HZ10-W (the more UV-obscured component) has an SED dust temperature of TSED ∼ 51.2 ± 13.1 K; this was found to be ∼5 K higher (which is statistically insignificant; i.e., less than 1σ) than that of the central component and previous global estimations for HZ10. Our new ALMA data allow us to reduce the uncertainties of global TSED measurements by a factor of ∼2.3, compared to previous studies. The HZ10 components have [CII]-to-far-infrared (FIR) luminosity ratios and FIR surface densities values that are consistent with local starburst galaxies. However, HZ10-W shows a lower [CII]/FIR ratio compared to the other two components (albeit still within the uncertainties), which may suggest a harder radiation field destroying polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon associated with [CII] emission (e.g., active galactic nuclei or young stellar populations). While HZ10-C appears to follow the tight IRX-βUV relation seen in local UV-selected starburst galaxies and high-z star-forming galaxies, we find that both HZ10-W and the bridge depart from this relation and are well described by dust-screen models with holes in front of a hard UV radiation field. This suggests that the UV emission, which is likely coming from young stellar populations, is strongly attenuated in the “dustier” components of the HZ10 system.

Bayesian inference methodology to characterize the dust emissivity at far-infrared and submillimeter frequencies

ABSTRACT We present a Bayesian inference method to characterize the dust emission properties using the well-known dust-${\rm H\,{\small I}}$ correlation in the diffuse interstellar medium at Planck frequencies $\nu \ge 217$ GHz. We use the Galactic ${\rm H\,{\small I}}$ map from the Galactic All-Sky Survey (GASS) as a template to trace the Galactic dust emission. We jointly infer the pixel-dependent dust emissivity and the zero level present in the Planck intensity maps. We use the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo technique to sample the high-dimensional parameter space ($D \sim 10^3$). We demonstrate that the methodology leads to unbiased recovery of dust emissivity per pixel and the zero level when applied to realistic Planck sky simulations over a 6300 $\rm {deg}^2$ area around the Southern Galactic pole. As an application on data, we analyse the Planck intensity map at 353 GHz to jointly infer the pixel-dependent dust emissivity at $N_{\rm side}=32$ resolution (1.8° pixel size) and the global offset. We find that the spatially varying dust emissivity has a mean of 0.031 MJy sr$^{-1}$$(10^{20} \, \mathrm{cm^{-2}})^{-1}$ and $1\sigma$ standard deviation of 0.007 MJy sr$^{-1}$$(10^{20} \, \mathrm{cm^{-2}})^{-1}$. The mean dust emissivity increases monotonically with increasing mean ${\rm H\,{\small I}}$ column density. We find that the inferred global offset is consistent with the expected level of cosmic infrared background (CIB) monopole added to the Planck data at 353 GHz. This method is useful in studying the line-of-sight variations of dust spectral energy distribution in the multiphase interstellar medium.

Retrievals of Protoplanetary Disk Parameters Using Thermochemical Models. I. Disk Gas Mass from Hydrogen Deuteride Spectroscopy

We discuss statistical relationships between the mass of protoplanetary disks, the hydrogen deuteride (HD) line flux, and the dust spectral energy distribution (SED) determined using 3000 ProDiMo disk models. The models have 15 free parameters describing the disk physical properties, the central star, and the local radiation field. The sampling of physical parameters is done using a Monte Carlo approach to evaluate the probability density functions of observables as a function of physical parameters. We find that the mass-averaged HD fractional abundance is almost constant even though the ultraviolet flux varies by several orders of magnitude. Probing the statistical relation between the physical quantities and the HD flux, we find that low-mass (optically thin) disks display a tight correlation between the average disk gas temperature and HD line flux, while massive disks show no such correlation. We demonstrate that the central star luminosity, disk size, dust size distribution, and HD flux may be used to determine the disk gas mass within a factor of 3. We also find that the far-infrared and submillimeter/millimeter SEDs and the HD flux may serve as strong constraints for determining the disk gas mass to within a factor of 2. If the HD lines are fully spectrally resolved (R ≳ 1.5 × 106, Δv = 0.2 km s−1), the 56 and 112 μm HD line profiles alone may constrain the disk gas mass to within a factor of 2.

The star formation, dust, and abundance of galaxies with unWISE-CIB cross-correlations

The cosmic infrared background (CIB) is the accumulated infrared (IR) radiation mainly from interstellar dust heated up by early stars. In this work, we measure the cross-correlation between galaxies from the unWISE catalog and the CIB maps from the Planck satellite to simultaneously constrain the cosmic star formation rate (SFR), dust spectral energy distribution (SED), and the halo occupation distribution (HOD). The unWISE galaxy catalog is divided into three tomographic bins centered at z ∼ 0.6, 1.1, 1.5, and the CIB maps are at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. We measure the cross-correlations between these galaxy samples and CIB maps and get a 194σ signal within an angular scale 100<ℓ<2000, from which we constrain two CIB halo models from previous literature and one new model. The SFR, SED, and HOD model parameters are constrained consistently among the three models. Specifically, the dust temperature at z = 0 is constrained T 0 = 21.14+1.02 -1.34 K, which is slightly lower than T 0 = 24.4±1.9 K measured by the Planck collaboration. The halo mass that gives the most efficient star formation is around 1011.79+0.73 -0.86 M ⊙. From the model parameters, combined with the SFR density at z = 0 synthesized from multi-wavelength observations, we break the degeneracy between SED and SFR and recover the cosmic star formation history that is consistent with multi-wavelength surveys. We also constrain the graybody SED model in agreement with previous measurements from infrared flux stacking. From the HOD constraints, we derive an increasing trend of galaxy linear bias along redshifts that agrees with the results from cross- and auto-correlation with unWISE galaxies. This study indicates the power of using CIB-galaxy cross-correlation to study star formation, dust, and abundance of galaxies across cosmic time.

HYPERION

We present ALMA deep observations of the [CII] 158 μm emission line and the continuum at 253 GHz and 99 GHz towards SDSS J0100+2802 at z ≃ 6.3, the most luminous quasi-stellar object (QSO) at z &gt; 6. J0100+2802 belongs to the HYPERION sample of luminous QSOs at z ∼ 6 − 7.5. The observations have a 2.2 arcsec resolution in band 3 and a 0.9 arcsec resolution in band 6, and are optimized to detect extended emission around the QSO. We detect an interacting, tidally disrupted companion both in [CII], peaking at z ∼ 6.332, and in continuum, stretching on scales up to 20 kpc from the quasar, with a knotty morphology. The higher velocity dispersion in the direction of the companion emission and the complex morphology of the tidally stretched galaxy suggest a possible ongoing or future merger. For the newly detected companion, we derive the range of the dust mass, Mdust = (0.3 − 2.6)×107 M⊙, and of the star formation rate, SFR = [35 − 344] M⊙, obtained from the modelling of its cold dust spectral energy distribution. This shows that both the QSO and its companion are gas-rich and that a major merger may be at the origin of the boosted star formation. This close interacting companion is undetected by deep JWST imaging observations, showing the effectiveness of ALMA in detecting dust-obscured sources, especially in the vicinity of optically bright quasars. We also detect a broad blueshifted component in the [CII] spectrum, which we interpret as a gaseous outflow for which we estimate a mass outflow rate in the range Ṁout = (118 − 269) M⊙ yr−1. J0100+2802 was recently found to reside in a strong overdensity, however this close companion remained undetected by both previous higher resolution ALMA observations and by JWST-NIRCAM imaging. Our results highlight the importance of deep medium-resolution ALMA observations for the study of QSOs and their environment in the Epoch of Reionisation.

ALMA Millimeter/Submillimeter Sources among Spitzer SMUVS Galaxies at z > 2 in the COSMOS Field

Submillimeter observations reveal the star formation activity obscured by dust in the young Universe. It still remains unclear how galaxies detected at submillimeter wavelengths are related to ultraviolet/optical-selected galaxies in terms of their observed quantities, physical properties, and evolutionary stages. Deep near- and mid-infrared observational data are crucial to characterize the stellar properties of galaxies detected with submillimeter emission. In this study, we make use of a galaxy catalog from the Spitzer Matching survey of the UltraVISTA ultra-deep Stripes. By crossmatching with a submillimeter source catalog constructed with archival data of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we search for galaxies at z > 2 with a submillimeter detection in our galaxy catalog. We find that the ALMA-detected galaxies at z > 2 are systematically massive and have redder K s –[4.5] colors than the nondetected galaxies. The redder colors are consistent with the larger dust reddening values of the ALMA-detected galaxies obtained from spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We also find that the ALMA-detected galaxies tend to have brighter 4.5 μm magnitudes. This may suggest that they tend to have smaller mass-to-light ratios and thus to be younger than star-forming galaxies fainter at submillimeter wavelengths with similar stellar masses. We identify starburst galaxies with high specific star formation rates among both ALMA-detected and nondetected SMUVS sources. Irrespective of their brightness at submillimeter wavelengths, these populations have similar dust reddening values, which may suggest a variety of dust SED shapes among the starburst galaxies at z > 2.

First Constraints on Dense Molecular Gas at z = 7.5149 from the Quasar Pōniuā‘ena

We report the detection of CO(6–5) and CO(7–6) and their underlying continua from the host galaxy of quasar J100758.264+211529.207 (Pōniuā‘ena) at z = 7.5149, obtained with the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array. Pōniuā‘ena belongs to the HYPerluminous quasars at the Epoch of ReionizatION sample of 18 z > 6 quasars selected to be powered by supermassive black holes, which experienced the fastest mass growth in the first cosmic gigayear. The one reported here is the highest-redshift measurement of the cold and dense molecular gas to date. The host galaxy is unresolved, and the line luminosity implies a molecular reservoir of M(H2) = (2.2 ± 0.2) × 1010 M ⊙, assuming a CO spectral line energy distribution typical of high-redshift quasars and a conversion factor α = 0.8 . We model the cold dust spectral energy distribution to derive a dust mass of M dust = (1.7 ± 0.6) × 108 M ⊙ and thus, a gas-to-dust ratio ∼130. Both the gas and dust mass are remarkably similar to the reservoirs found for luminous quasars at z ∼ 6–7. We use the CO detection to derive an estimate of the cosmic mass density of H2, . This value is in line with the general trend suggested by literature estimates at z < 7 and agrees fairly well with the latest theoretical expectations of nonequilibrium molecular-chemistry cosmological simulations of cold gas at early times.

Tensor-to-scalar ratio forecasts for extended LiteBIRD frequency configurations

LiteBIRD is a planned JAXA-led cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode satellite experiment aiming for launch in the late 2020s, with a primary goal of detecting the imprint of primordial inflationary gravitational waves. Its current baseline focal-plane configuration includes 15 frequency bands between 40 and 402 GHz, fulfilling the mission requirements to detect the amplitude of gravitational waves with the total uncertainty on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, δr, down to δr &lt; 0.001. A key aspect of this performance is accurate astrophysical component separation, and the ability to remove polarized thermal dust emission is particularly important. In this paper we note that the CMB frequency spectrum falls off nearly exponentially above 300 GHz relative to the thermal dust spectral energy distribution, and a relatively minor high frequency extension can therefore result in even lower uncertainties and better model reconstructions. Specifically, we compared the baseline design with five extended configurations, while varying the underlying dust modeling, in each of which the High-Frequency Telescope (HFT) frequency range was shifted logarithmically toward higher frequencies, with an upper cutoff ranging between 400 and 600 GHz. In each case, we measured the tensor-to-scalar ratio r uncertainty and bias using both parametric and minimum-variance component-separation algorithms. When the thermal dust sky model includes a spatially varying spectral index and temperature, we find that the statistical uncertainty on r after foreground cleaning may be reduced by as much as 30–50% by extending the upper limit of the frequency range from 400 to 600 GHz, with most of the improvement already gained at 500 GHz. We also note that a broader frequency range leads to higher residuals when fitting an incorrect dust model, but also it is easier to discriminate between models through higher χ2 sensitivity. Even in the case in which the fitting procedure does not correspond to the underlying dust model in the sky, and when the highest frequency data cannot be modeled with sufficient fidelity and must be excluded from the analysis, the uncertainty on r increases by only about 5% for a 500 GHz configuration compared to the baseline.

Accurate Dust Temperature and Star Formation Rate in the Most Luminous z > 6 Quasar in the Hyperluminous Quasars at the Epoch of Reionization (HYPERION) Sample

We present ALMA Band 9 continuum observation of the ultraluminous quasi-stellar object (QSO) SDSS J0100+2802 providing a ∼10σ detection at ∼670 GHz. SDSS J0100+2802 is the brightest QSO with the most massive supermassive black hole (SMBH) known at z > 6, and we study its dust spectral energy distribution in order to determine the dust properties and the star formation rate (SFR) of its host galaxy. We obtain the most accurate estimate so far of the temperature, mass, and emissivity index of the dust, which are T dust = 48.4 ± 2.3 K, M dust = (2.29 ± 0.83) × 107 M ⊙, and β = 2.63 ± 0.23, respectively. This allows us to measure the SFR with the smallest statistical error for this QSO, SFR = 265 ± 32 M ⊙yr−1. Our results enable us to evaluate the relative growth of the SMBH and host galaxy of J0100+2802. We find that the SMBH is dominating the process of black-hole galaxy growth in this QSO at z = 6.327, when the universe was 865 Myr old. Such unprecedented constraints on the host-galaxy SFR and dust temperature can only be obtained through high-frequency observations and highlight the importance of ALMA Band 9 to obtain a robust overview of the buildup of the first quasars’ host galaxies at z > 6.

JWST Insight into a Lensed HST-dark Galaxy and Its Quiescent Companion at z = 2.58

Using the novel James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)/NIRCam observations in the A2744 field, we present a first spatially resolved overview of a Hubble Space Telescope (HST)-dark galaxy, spectroscopically confirmed at z = 2.58 with magnification μ ≈ 1.9. While being largely invisible at ∼1 μm with NIRCam, except for sparse clumpy substructures, the object is well detected and resolved in the long-wavelength bands with a spiral shape clearly visible in F277W. By combining ancillary Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Herschel data, we infer that this object is an edge-on dusty spiral with an intrinsic stellar mass log (M */M ⊙) ∼ 11.3 and a dust-obscured star formation rate ∼300 M ⊙ yr−1. A massive quiescent galaxy (log (M */M ⊙) ∼ 10.8) with tidal features lies 2.″0 away (r ∼ 9 kpc), at a consistent redshift as inferred by JWST photometry, indicating a potential major merger. The dusty spiral lies on the main sequence of star formation, and shows high dust attenuation in the optical (3 < A V < 4.5). In the far-infrared, its integrated dust spectral energy distribution is optically thick up to λ 0 ∼ 500 μm, further supporting the extremely dusty nature. Spatially resolved analysis of the HST-dark galaxy reveals a largely uniform A V ∼ 4 area spanning ∼57 kpc2, which spatially matches to the ALMA 1 mm continuum emission. Accounting for the surface brightness dimming and the depths of current JWST surveys, unlensed analogs of the HST-dark galaxy at z > 4 would be only detectable in F356W and F444W in an UNCOVER-like survey, and become totally JWST-dark at z ∼ 6. This suggests that detecting highly attenuated galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization might be a challenging task for JWST.

Dust polarization spectral dependence from Planck HFI data

The search for the primordial B-modes of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) relies on the separation from the brighter foreground dust signal. In this context, the characterization of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of thermal dust in polarization has become a critical subject of study. We present a power-spectra analysis of Planck data, which improves upon previous studies by using the newly released SRoll2 maps that include corrections on residual data systematics and by extending the analysis to regions near the Galactic plane. Our analysis focuses on the lowest multipoles between ℓ = 4 and 32, as well as three sky areas with sky fractions of fsky = 80%, 90%, and 97%. The mean dust SED for polarization and the 353 GHz Q and U maps are used to compute residual maps at 100, 143, and 217 GHz, highlighting variations of the dust polarization SED on the sky and along the line of sight. Residuals are detected at the three frequencies for the three sky areas. We show that models based on total-intensity data end up underestimating (by a significant factor) the complexity of dust polarized CMB foreground. Our analysis emphasizes the need to include variations of the polarization angles of the dust polarized CMB foreground. The frequency dependence of the EE and BB power spectra of the residual maps yields further insight. We find that the moments expansion to the first order of the modified black-body (MBB) spectrum provides a good fit to the EE power-spectra. This result suggests that the residuals could follow mainly from variations of the dust MBB spectral parameters. However, this conclusion is challenged by cross-spectra showing that the residuals maps at the three frequencies are not fully correlated, as well as the fact that the BB power-spectra do not match the first order moment expansion of a MBB SED. This work sets new requirements for simulations of the dust-polarized foreground and component separation methods, showing that a significant refinement to the dust modeling is necessary to ensure an unbiased detection of the CMB primordial B-modes at the precision required by future CMB experiments. Further works would also be required to theoretically model the impact of polarization-angle variations on the EE and BB power spectra of residual maps.

Characterizing line-of-sight variability of polarized dust emission with future CMB experiments

ABSTRACT While Galactic dust emission is often accounted for in cosmic microwave background (CMB) analyses by fitting a two-parameter modified blackbody (MBB) model in each pixel, typically a number of such clouds are found along each line of sight and within each angular pixel, resulting in a superposition of their spectra. We study the effects of this superposition on pixel-based foreground fitting strategies by modeling the spectral energy distribution (SED) in each pixel as the integral of individual MBB spectra over various physically motivated statistical distributions of dust cloud properties. We show that fitting these SEDs with the two-parameter MBB model generally results in unbiased estimates of the CMB Stokes Q and U amplitudes per pixel, unless there are significant changes in both the dust SED and polarization angle along the line of sight, in which case significant (&amp;gt;10σ) biases are observed in an illustrative model. We find that the best-fitting values of the dust temperature, Td, and spectral index, βd, are significantly biased from the mean/median of the corresponding statistical distributions when the distributions are broad, suggesting that MBB model fits can give an unrepresentative picture of the physical properties of dust at microwave wavelengths if not interpreted carefully. Using Fisher matrix analysis, we determine the experimental sensitivity required to recover the parameters of the Td and βd distributions by fitting a probabilistic MBB model, finding that only the parameters of broad distributions can be measured by SED fitting on a single line of sight.

Diagnosing deceivingly cold dusty galaxies at 3.5 &lt; z &lt; 6: A substantial population of compact starbursts with high infrared optical depths

Using NOEMA and ALMA 3mm line scans, we measured spectroscopic redshifts of six new dusty galaxies at 3.5 &lt; z &lt; 4.2 by solidly detecting [CI](1-0) and CO transitions. The sample was selected from the COSMOS and GOODS-North super-deblended catalogs with far-infrared (FIR) photometric redshifts zphot &gt; 6 based on template IR spectral energy distribution (SED) from known submillimeter galaxies at z = 4–6. Dust SED analyses explain the zphot overestimate from seemingly cold dust temperatures (Td) and steep Rayleigh-Jeans (RJ) slopes, providing additional examples of cold dusty galaxies impacted by the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We therefore studied the general properties of the enlarged sample of 10 “cold” dusty galaxies over 3.5 &lt; z &lt; 6. We conclude that these galaxies are deceivingly cold at the surface but are actually warm in their starbursting cores. Several lines of evidence support this scenario: (1) The high infrared surface density ΣIR and cold Td from optically thin models appear to violate the Stefan-Boltzmann law; (2) the gas masses derived from optically thin dust masses are inconsistent with estimates from dynamics and CI luminosities; (3) the implied high star formation efficiencies would conflict with cold Td; and (4) high FIR optical depth is implied even using the lower, optically thick dust masses. This work confirms the existence of a substantial population of deceivingly cold, compact dusty starburst galaxies at z ≳ 4, together with the severe impact of the CMB on their RJ observables, paving the way for the diagnostics of optically thick dust in the early Universe. Conventional gas mass estimates based on RJ dust continuum luminosities implicitly assume an optically thin case, which leads to overestimation of gas masses by a factor of 2–3 on average in compact dusty star-forming galaxies.

No Redshift Evolution of Galaxies’ Dust Temperatures Seen from 0 < z < 2

Some recent literature has claimed there to be an evolution in galaxies’ dust temperatures toward warmer (or colder) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) between low and high redshift. These conclusions are driven by both theoretical models and empirical measurement. Such claims sometimes contradict one another and are prone to biases in samples or SED fitting techniques. What has made direct comparisons difficult is that there is no uniform approach to fitting galaxies’ infrared/millimeter SEDs. Here we aim to standardize the measurement of galaxies’ dust temperatures with a python-based SED fitting procedure, MCIRSED. 1 1 Publicly available at github.com/pdrew32/mcirsed. We draw on reference data sets observed by Infrared Astronomical Satellite, Herschel, and Scuba-2 to test for redshift evolution out to z ∼ 2. We anchor our work to the L IR–λ peak plane, where there is an empirically observed anticorrelation between IR luminosity and rest-frame peak wavelength (an observational proxy for luminosity-weighted dust temperature) such that where η = −0.09 ± 0.01, Lt = 1012 L ⊙, and λ t = 92 ± 2 μm. We find no evidence for redshift evolution of galaxies’ temperatures, or λ peak, at fixed L IR from 0 < z < 2 with >99.99% confidence. Our finding does not preclude evolution in dust temperatures at fixed stellar mass, which is expected from a nonevolving L IR–λ peak relation and a strongly evolving SFR–M⋆ relation. The breadth of dust temperatures () at a given L IR is likely driven by variation in galaxies’ dust geometries and sizes, and it does not evolve. Testing for L IR–λ peak evolution toward higher redshift (z ∼ 5−6) requires better sampling of galaxies’ dust SEDs near their peaks (observed ∼200–600 μm) with ≲1 mJy sensitivity. This poses a significant challenge to current instrumentation.

Dust spectral energy distributions in Milky Way-like galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations based on the evolution of grain size distribution

ABSTRACT To understand how the evolution of grain size distribution in galaxies affects observed dust properties, we apply a post-processing dust evolution model to galaxy merger trees from the IllustrisTNG cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. Our dust model includes stellar dust production, sputtering in hot gas, dust growth by accretion and coagulation in the dense interstellar medium (ISM), and shattering in the diffuse ISM. We decompose the grain size distribution into different dust species depending on the elemental abundances and the dense ISM fraction given by the simulation. In our previous work, we focused on Milky Way (MW) analogues and reproduced the observed MW extinction curve. In this study, we compute dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the MW analogues. Our simulated SEDs broadly reproduce the observed MW SED within their dispersion and so does the observational data of nearby galaxies, although they tend to underpredict the MW SED at short wavelengths where emission is dominated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. We find that metallicity and dense gas fraction are the most critical factors for the SED shape, through their influence on coagulation and shattering. The overall success of our models in reproducing the MW SED further justifies the dust evolution processes included in the model and predicts the dispersion in the SEDs caused by the variety in the assembly history. We also show that the most significant increase in the dust SED occurs between redshifts z ∼ 3 and 2 in the progenitors of the simulated MW-like galaxies.

A Study of 90 GHz Dust Emissivity on Molecular Cloud and Filament Scales

Recent observations from the MUSTANG2 instrument on the Green Bank Telescope have revealed evidence of enhanced long-wavelength emission in the dust spectral energy distribution (SED) in the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC) 2/3 filament on 25″ (0.1 pc) scales. Here we present a measurement of the SED on larger spatial scales (map size 0.°5–3° or 3–20 pc), at somewhat lower resolution (120″, corresponding to 0.25 pc at 400 pc) using data from the Herschel satellite and Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). We then extend the 120″-scale investigation to other regions covered in the Herschel Gould Belt Survey (HGBS), specifically the dense filaments in the southerly regions of Orion A, Orion B, and Serpens-S. Our data set in aggregate covers approximately 10 deg2, with continuum photometry spanning from 160 μm to 3 mm. These OMC 2/3 data display excess emission at 3 mm, though less (10.9% excess) than what is seen at higher resolution. Strikingly, we find that the enhancement is present even more strongly in the other filaments we targeted, with an average excess of 42.4% and 30/46 slices showing an inconsistency with the modified blackbody to at least 4σ. Applying this analysis to the other targeted regions, we lay the groundwork for future high-resolution analyses. Additionally, we also consider a two-component dust model motivated by Planck results and an amorphous grain dust model. While both of these have been proposed to explain deviations in emission from a generic modified blackbody, we find that they have significant drawbacks, requiring many spectral points or lacking experimental data coverage.

Moment expansion of polarized dust SED: A new path towards capturing the CMB B-modes with LiteBIRD

Accurate characterization of the polarized dust emission from our Galaxy will be decisive in the quest for the cosmic microwave background (CMB) primordial B-modes. An incomplete modeling of its potentially complex spectral properties could lead to biases in the CMB polarization analyses and to a spurious measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r. It is particularly crucial for future surveys like the LiteBIRD satellite, the goal of which is to constrain the faint primordial signal leftover by inflation with an accuracy on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r of the order of 10−3. Variations of the dust properties along and between lines of sight lead to unavoidable distortions of the spectral energy distribution (SED) that cannot be easily anticipated by standard component-separation methods. This issue can be tackled using a moment expansion of the dust SED, an innovative parametrization method imposing minimal assumptions on the sky complexity. In the present paper, we apply this formalism to the B-mode cross-angular power spectra computed from simulated LiteBIRD polarization data at frequencies between 100 and 402 GHz that contain CMB, dust, and instrumental noise. The spatial variation of the dust spectral parameters (spectral index β and temperature T) in our simulations lead to significant biases on r (∼21 σr) if not properly taken into account. Performing the moment expansion in β, as in previous studies, reduces the bias but does not lead to sufficiently reliable estimates of r. We introduce, for the first time, the expansion of the cross-angular power spectra SED in both β and T, showing that, at the sensitivity of LiteBIRD, the SED complexity due to temperature variations needs to be taken into account in order to prevent analysis biases on r. Thanks to this expansion, and despite the existing correlations between some of the dust moments and the CMB signal responsible for a rise in the error on r, we can measure an unbiased value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio with a dispersion as low as σr = 8.8 × 10−4.

ORion Alma New GEneration Survey (ORANGES)

Context. The spectral energy distribution (SED) in the millimetre to centimetre range is an extremely useful tool for characterising the dust in protostellar envelopes as well as free-free emission from the protostar and outflow. Actually, the evolutionary status of solar-type protostars is often based on their SED in the near-infrared to millimetre range. In addition, the presence or absence of free-free emission can be considered an indicator of the source evolutionary stage (Class 0/I versus Class II/III). While many studies have been carried out towards low- and high-mass protostars, little exists so far about solar-type protostars in high-mass star-forming regions, which are likely to be representatives of the conditions where the Solar System was born. Aims. In this work, we focus on the embedded solar-type protostars in the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC) 2 and 3 filaments, which are bounded by nearby HII regions and which are, therefore, potentially affected by the high-UV illumination of the nearby OB stars. We use various dust parameters to understand whether the small-scale structure (≤1000 au) and the evolutionary status of these solar-type protostars are affected by the nearby HII regions, as is the case for the large-scale (≤104 au) gas chemical composition. Methods. We used the Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) in the 1.3 mm band (246.2 GHz) to image the continuum of 16 young (Class 0/I) OMC-2/3 solar-type protostars, with an angular resolution of 0.25″ (100 au). We completed our data with archival data from the ALMA and VLA VANDAM survey of Orion Protostars at 333 and 32.9 GHz, respectively, to construct the dust SED and extract the dust temperature, the dust emissivity spectral index, the envelope plus disk mass of the sources and to assess whether free-free emission is contaminating their dust SED in the centimetre range. Results. From the millimetre to centimetre range dust SED, we found low dust emissivity spectral indexes (β &lt; 1) for the majority of our source sample and free-free emission towards only 5 of the 16 sample sources. We were also able to confirm or correct the evolutionary status of the source sample reported in the literature. Finally, we did not find any dependence of the source dust parameters on their location in the OMC-2/3 filament. Conclusions. Our results show that the small-scale dust properties of the embedded OMC-2/3 protostars are not affected by the high-UV illumination from the nearby HII regions and that the formation of protostars likely takes place simultaneously throughout the filament.

The Physical Drivers of the Luminosity-weighted Dust Temperatures in High-redshift Galaxies

Abstract The underlying distribution of galaxies’ dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs) (i.e., their spectra reradiated by dust from rest-frame ∼3 μm to 3 mm) remains relatively unconstrained owing to a dearth of far-IR/(sub)millimeter data for large samples of galaxies. It has been claimed in the literature that a galaxy’s dust temperature—observed as the wavelength where the dust SED peaks (λ peak)—is traced most closely by its specific star formation rate (sSFR) or parameterized “distance” to the SFR–M ⋆ relation (the galaxy “main sequence”). We present 024 resolved 870 μm ALMA dust continuum observations of seven z = 1.4–4.6 dusty star-forming galaxies chosen to have a large range of well-constrained luminosity-weighted dust temperatures. We also draw on similar-resolution dust continuum maps from a sample of ALESS submillimeter galaxies from Hodge et al (2016). We constrain the physical scales over which the dust radiates and compare those measurements to characteristics of the integrated SED. We confirm significant correlations of λ peak with both L IR (or SFR) and ΣIR (∝SFR surface density). We investigate the correlation between log10(λ peak) and log10(ΣIR) and find the relation to hold as would be expected from the Stefan–Boltzmann law, or the effective size of an equivalent blackbody. The correlations of λ peak with sSFR and distance from the SFR–M ⋆ relation are less significant than those for ΣIR or L IR; therefore, we conclude that the more fundamental tracer of galaxies’ luminosity-weighted integrated dust temperatures are indeed their star formation surface densities in line with local universe results, which relate closely to the underlying geometry of dust in the interstellar medium.