ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: Dust mass measurements as a function of redshift, stellar mass, and star formation rate from z = 1 to z = 5
Journal article, 2025
Context. Understanding the dust content of galaxies, its evolution with redshift and its relation to stars and star formation is fundamental for our understanding of galaxy evolution. Dust acts as a catalyst of star formation and as a shield for star light. Advanced millimeter facilities like ALMA have made dust observation ever more accessible, even at high redshift. However, dust emission is typically very faint, making the use of stacking techniques is instrumental in the study of dust in statistically sound samples. Aims. Using the ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey (ALCS) wide-area band-6 continuum dataset (∼ 110 arcmin2 across 33 lensing clusters), we constrain the dust-mass evolution with redshift, stellar mass, and star formation rate (SFR). Methods. After binning sources according to redshift, SFR, and stellar mass as extracted from an HST-IRAC catalog, we performed a set of continuum-stacking analyses in the image domain using LINESTACKER on sources between z = 1 and z = 5, which further improved the depth of our data. The large field of view provided by the ALCS allowed us to reach a final sample of ∼4000 galaxies with known coordinates and SED-derived physical parameters. We stacked sources with an SFR between 10-3 and 103 M⊙ per year and a stellar mass between 108 and 1012 M⊙, and we split them into different stellar mass and SFR bins. Through stacking, we retrieved the continuum 1.2 mm flux, which is a known dust-mass tracer. This allowed us to derive the dust-mass evolution with redshift and its relation to the SFR and stellar mass. Results. We clearly detect the continuum in most of the subsamples. From the nondetections, we derive 3σ upper limits. We observe a steady decline in the average dust mass with redshift. Moreover, sources with a higher stellar mass or SFR have a higher dust mass on average. This allows us to derive scaling relations. Our results mostly agree well with models at z ∼ 1-3, but they indicate a typically lower dust mass than predicted at higher redshift.
Extinction
Dust
Galaxies: evolution
Galaxies: statistics
Galaxies: ISM
Author
Jean Baptiste Jolly
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Max Planck Society
Kirsten Knudsen
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
N. Laporte
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
Andrea Guerrero
University of Concepcion
S. Fujimoto
Niels Bohr Institute
Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Kotaro Kohno
Research Center for the Early Universe
University of Tokyo
V. Kokorev
University of Groningen
C. D. P. Lagos
University of Western Australia
Thiébaut-Antoine Schirmer
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
F. E. Bauer
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Millennium Institute of Astrophysics
Miroslava Dessauge-Zavadsky
University of Geneva
D. Espada
Universidad de Granada
B. Hatsukade
University of Tokyo
Anton M. Koekemoer
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
J. Richard
Université de Lyon
Fengwu Sun
University of Arizona
John F. Wu
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
Johns Hopkins University
Astronomy and Astrophysics
0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)
Vol. 693 A190The Origin and Fate of Dust in Our Universe
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW 2020.0081), 2021-07-01 -- 2026-06-30.
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW 2019.0443), 2020-06-01 -- 2023-05-31.
Galaxy evolution: Tracing the gas fraction of star-forming galaxies
Swedish Research Council (VR) (2015-05580), 2016-01-01 -- 2019-12-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202346239