2004/03/10 by G. Vladilo, Giovanni Vladilo · 55 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Chemical evolution #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Metallicity #Physics #Redshift #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20035897
published in Astronomy and Astrophysics 421(2), 479-490 (EDP Sciences) · Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics; 13 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2004/03/10 · openalex publication_date 2004/06/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a study of the early build-up of dust in high redshift galaxies. The study is based on the analysis of 38 Damped Lyα systems (DLAs) for which we derive the fraction of iron atoms in dust form, fFe. The sample is representative of metal-poor galaxies in the redshift range selected on the basis of their absorption column density ( atoms cm-2). We find that the dust fraction increases with metallicity, from at dex, up to at solar metallicity; the increase is fast below dex and mild at higher metallicities. We also find some evidence for an increase of fFe with cosmic time; a large fraction of the systems younger than ≈3 Gyr has . These results indicate that the dust-to-metal ratio increases in the course of chemical evolution, at variance with the hypothesis of an approximately constant dust-to-metal ratio, commonly adopted in models of galactic evolution. This hypothesis is consistent with local and high-redshift data only when the metallicity is relatively high ( dex). The results of this work suggest that the main mechanisms of dust formation may be rather sensitive to the level of metallicity attained by a galaxy in the course of its chemical evolution. A metallicity-dependent dust production by SNe II seems to be the most promising mechanism to explain the rise of fFe at dex.