Aims. Within the framework of the DustPedia project we investigate the properties of cosmic dust and its interaction with the stellar radiation (originating from different stellar populations) for 814 galaxies in the nearby Universe, all observed by the Herschel Space Observatory. Methods. We take advantage of the widely used galaxy SED fitting code CIGALE, properly adapted to include the state-of-the-art dust model THEMIS. For comparison purposes an estimation of the dust properties is provided by approximating the emission at far-infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths with a modified blackbody. Using the DustPedia photometry we determine the physical properties of the galaxies, such as, the dust and stellar mass, the star-formation rate, the bolometric luminosity as well as the unattenuated and the absorbed by dust stellar light, for both the old (> 200 Myr) and young (≤ 200 Myr) stellar populations. Results. We show how the mass of stars, dust, and atomic gas, as well as the star-formation rate and the dust temperature vary between galaxies of different morphologies and provide recipes to estimate these parameters given their Hubble stage (T ). We find a mild correlation between the mass fraction of the small a-C(:H) grains with the specific star-formation rate. On average, young stars are very efficient in heating the dust, with absorption fractions reaching as high as ∼ 77% of the total, unattenuated luminosity of this population. On the other hand, the maximum absorption fraction of old stars is ∼ 24%. Dust heating in early-type galaxies is mainly due to old stars, up to a level of ∼ 90%. Young stars progressively contribute more for 'typical' spiral galaxies and they become the dominant source of dust heating for Sm type and irregular galaxies, donating up to ∼ 60% of their luminosity to this purpose. Finally, we find a strong correlation of the dust heating fraction by young stars with morphology and the specific star-formation rate.

Observations of evolution in the dust-to-metal ratio allow us to constrain the dominant dust processing mechanisms. In this work, we present a study of the dust-to-metal and dust-to-gas ratios in a sub-sample of ∼ 500 DustPedia galaxies. Using literature and MUSE emission line fluxes, we derived gas-phase metallicities (oxygen abundances) for over 10000 individual regions and determine characteristic metallicities for each galaxy. We study how the relative dust, gas, and metal contents of galaxies evolve by using metallicity and gas fraction as proxies for evolutionary state. The global oxygen abundance and nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio are found to increase monotonically as galaxies evolve. Additionally, unevolved galaxies (gas fraction > 60%, metallicity 12 + log(O/H) < 8.2) have dust-to-metal ratios that are about a factor of 2.1 lower (a factor of six lower for galaxies with gas fraction > 80%) than the typical dust-to-metal ratio (M d /M Z ∼ 0.214) for more evolved sources. However, for high gas fractions, the scatter is larger due to larger observational uncertainties as well as a potential dependence of the dust grain growth timescale and supernova dust yield on local conditions and star formation histories. We find chemical evolution models with a strong contribution from dust grain growth describe these observations reasonably well. The dust-to-metal ratio is also found to be lower for low stellar masses and high specific star formation rates (with the exception of some sources undergoing a starburst). Finally, the metallicity gradient correlates weakly with the Hi-to-stellar mass ratio, the effective radius and the dust-to-stellar mass ratio, but not with stellar mass.

Aims. We study the fraction of stellar radiation absorbed by dust, f abs , in 814 galaxies of different morphological types. The targets constitute the vast majority (93%) of the DustPedia sample, including almost all large (optical diameter larger than 1 ′ ), nearby (v ≤ 3000 km s −1 ) galaxies observed with the Herschel Space Observatory. Methods. For each object, we model the spectral energy distribution from the ultraviolet to the sub-millimetre using the dedicated, aperture-matched DustPedia photometry and the fitting code CIGALE. The value of f abs is obtained from the total luminosity emitted by dust and from the bolometric luminosity, which are estimated by the fit. Results. On average, 19% of the stellar radiation is absorbed by dust in DustPedia galaxies. The fraction rises to 25% if only late-type galaxies are considered. The dependence of f abs on morphology, showing a peak for Sb-Sc galaxies, is weak; it reflects a stronger, yet broad, positive correlation with the bolometric luminosity, which is identified for late-type, disk-dominated, high-specific-starformation rate, gas-rich objects. We find no variation of f abs with inclination, at odds with radiative transfer models of edge-on galaxies. These results call for a self-consistent modelling of the evolution of the dust mass and geometry along the build-up of the stellar content. We also provide template spectral energy distributions in bins of morphology and luminosity and study the variation of f abs with stellar mass and specific star formation rate. We confirm that the local Universe is missing the high f abs , luminous and actively star-forming objects necessary to explain the energy budget in observations of the extragalactic background light.

Context. The efficiency of the different processes responsible for the evolution of interstellar dust on the scale of a galaxy are, to date, very uncertain, spanning several orders of magnitude in the literature. Yet, precise knowledge of the grain properties is key to addressing numerous open questions about the physics of the interstellar medium and galaxy evolution. Aims. This article presents an empirical statistical study, aimed at quantifying the timescales of the main cosmic dust evolution processes as a function of the global properties of a galaxy. Methods. We modeled a sample of ≃800 nearby galaxies, spanning a wide range of metallicities, gas fractions, specific star formation rates, and Hubble stages. We derived the dust properties of each object from its spectral energy distribution. Through an additional level of analysis, we inferred the timescales of dust condensation in core-collapse supernova ejecta, grain growth in cold clouds, and dust destruction by shock waves. Throughout this paper, we have adopted a hierarchical Bayesian approach, resulting in a single large probability distribution of all the parameters of all the galaxies, to ensure the most rigorous interpretation of our data. Results. We confirm the drastic evolution with metallicity of the dust-to-metal mass ratio (by two orders of magnitude), found by previous studies. We show that dust production by core-collapse supernovae is efficient only at very low metallicity, a single supernova producing on average less than ≃0.03 M⊙/SN of dust. Our data indicate that grain growth is the dominant formation mechanism at metallicity above ≃1/5 solar, with a grain growth timescale shorter than ≃50 Myr at solar metallicity. Shock destruction is relatively efficient, a single supernova clearing dust on average in at least ≃1200 M⊙/SN of gas. These results are robust when assuming different stellar initial mass functions. In addition, we show that early-type galaxies are outliers in several scaling relations. This feature could result from grain thermal sputtering in hot X-ray emitting gas, which is a hypothesis supported by a negative correlation between the dust-to-stellar mass ratio and the X-ray photon rate per grain. Finally, we confirm the well-known evolution of the aromatic-feature-emitting grain mass fraction as a function of metallicity and interstellar radiation field intensity. Our data indicate that the relation with metallicity is significantly stronger. Conclusions. Our results provide valuable constraints for simulations of galaxies. They imply that grain growth is the likely dust production mechanism in dusty high-redshift objects. We also emphasize the determinant role of local, low metallicity systems in order to address these questions.

Aims. The purpose of this work is the characterization of the main scaling relations between all of the interstellar medium (ISM) components, namely dust, atomic, molecular, and total gas, and gas-phase metallicity, as well as other galaxy properties, such as stellar mass (M star ) and galaxy morphology, for late-type galaxies in the Local Universe. Methods. This study was performed by extracting late-type galaxies from the entire DustPedia sample and by exploiting the large and homogeneous dataset available thanks to the DustPedia project. The sample consists of 436 galaxies with morphological stage spanning from T = 1 to 10, M star from 6 × 10 7 to 3 × 10 11 M , star formation rate from 6 × 10 −4 to 60 M yr −1 , and oxygen abundance from 12 + log(O/H) = 8 to 9.5. Molecular and atomic gas data were collected from the literature and properly homogenized. All the masses involved in our analysis refer to the values within the optical disks of galaxies. The scaling relations involving the molecular gas are studied by assuming both a constant and a metallicity-dependent CO-to-H 2 conversion factor (X CO ). The analysis was performed by means of the survival analysis technique, in order to properly take into account the presence of both detection and nondetection in the data. Results. We confirm that the dust mass correlates very well with the total gas mass, and find -for the first time-that the dust mass correlates better with the atomic gas mass than with the molecular one. We characterize important mass ratios such as the gas fraction, the molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratio, the dust-to-total gas mass ratio (DGR), and the dust-to-stellar mass ratio, and study how they relate to each other, to galaxy morphology, and to gas-phase metallicity. Only the assumption of a metallicity-dependent X CO reproduces the expected decrease of the DGR with increasing morphological stage and decreasing gas-phase metallicity, with a slope of about 1. The DGR, the gas-phase metallicity, and the dust-to-stellar mass ratio are, for our galaxy sample, directly linked to galaxy morphology. The molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratio and the DGR show a positive correlation for low molecular gas fractions, but for galaxies rich in molecular gas this trend breaks down. To our knowledge, this trend has never been found before, and provides new constraints for theoretical models of galaxy evolution and a reference for high-redshift studies. We discuss several scenarios related to this finding. Conclusions. The DustPedia database of late-type galaxies is an extraordinary tool for the study of the ISM scaling relations, thanks to its homogeneous collection of data for the different ISM components. The database is made publicly available to the whole community.

Context. High-mass X-ray binaries are bright X-ray sources. The high-energy emission is caused by the accretion of matter from the massive companion onto a neutron star. The accreting material comes from either the strong stellar wind in binaries with supergiant companions or the cirscumstellar disk in Be/X-ray binaries. In either case, the Hα line stands out as the main source of information about the state of the accreting material. Aims. We present the results of our monitoring program to study the long-term variability of the Hα line in high-mass X-ray binaries. Our aim is to characterise the optical variability timescales and study the interaction between the neutron star and the accreting material. Methods. We fitted the Hα line with Gaussian profiles and obtained the line parameters and equivalent width. The peak separation in split profiles was used to determine the disk velocity law and estimate the disk radius. The relative intensity of the two peaks (V/R ratio) allowed us to investigate the distribution of gas particles in the disk. The equivalent width was used to characterise the degree of variability of the systems. We also studied the variability of the Hα line in correlation with the X-ray activity. Results. Our results can be summarised as follows: i) we find that Be/X-ray binaries with narrow orbits are more variable than systems with long orbital periods; ii) we show that a Keplerian distribution of gas particles provides a good description of the disks in Be/X-ray binaries, as it does in classical Be stars; iii) a decrease in the Hα equivalent width is generally observed after major X-ray outbursts; iv) we confirm that the Hα equivalent width correlates with disk radius; v) while systems with supergiant companions display multistructured profiles, most of the Be/X-ray binaries show, at some epoch, double-peak asymmetric profiles, which indicates that density inhomogeneities is a common property in the disk of Be/X-ray binaries; vi) the profile variability (V/R ratio) timescales are shorter and the Hα equivalent widths are smaller in Be/X-ray binaries than in isolated Be stars; and vii) we provide new evidence that the disk in Be/X-ray binaries is, on average, denser than in classical Be stars. Conclusions. We carried out the most complete optical spectroscopic study of the global properties of high-mass X-ray binaries with the analysis of more than 1100 spectra from 20 sources. Our results provide further evidence for the truncation of the disk in Be/X-ray binaries. We conclude that the interaction between the compact object and the Be-type star works in two directions: the massive companion provides the source of matter for accretion, affecting the surroundings of the compact object, and the continuous revolution of the neutron star around the optical counterpart also produces the truncation of the Be star's equatorial disk.

Aims. We compare the far-infrared to sub-millimetre dust emission properties measured in high Galactic latitude cirrus with those determined in a sample of 204 late-type DustPedia galaxies. The aim is to verify if it is appropriate to use Milky Way dust properties to derive dust masses in external galaxies. Methods. We used Herschel observations and atomic and molecular gas masses to estimate ǫ(250 µm), the disc-averaged dust emissivity at 250 µm, and from this, the absorption cross section per H atom σ(250 µm) and per dust mass κ(250 µm). The emissivity ǫ(250 µm) requires one assumption, which is the CO-to-H 2 conversion factor, and the dust temperature is additionally required for σ(250 µm); yet another constraint on the dust-to-hydrogen ratio D/H, depending on metallicity, is required for κ(250 µm). Results. We find ǫ(250 µm) = 0.82 ± 0.07 MJy sr −1 (10 20 H cm −2 ) −1 for galaxies with 4 < F(250 µm)/F(500 µm) < 5. This depends only weakly on the adopted CO-to-H 2 conversion factor. The value is almost the same as that for the Milky Way at the same colour ratio. Instead, for F(250 µm)/F(500 µm) > 6, ǫ(250 µm) is lower than predicted by its dependence on the heating conditions. The reduction suggests a variation in dust emission properties for spirals of earlier type, higher metallicity, and with a higher fraction of molecular gas. When the standard emission properties of Galactic cirrus are used for these galaxies, their dust masses might be underestimated by up to a factor of two. Values for σ(250 µm) and κ(250 µm) at the Milky Way metallicity are also close to those of the cirrus. Mild trends of the absorption cross sections with metallicity are found, although the results depend on the assumptions made.

The cosmic spectral energy distribution (CSED) is the total emissivity as a function of wavelength of galaxies in a given cosmic volume. We compare the observed CSED from the UV to the submm to that computed from the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, post-processed with stellar population synthesis models and including dust radiative transfer using the SKIRT code. The agreement with the data is better than 0.15 dex over the entire wavelength range at redshift z = 0, except at UV wavelengths where the EAGLE model overestimates the observed CSED by up to a factor 2. Global properties of the CSED as inferred from CIGALE fits, such as the stellar mass density, mean star formation density, and mean dust-to-stellar-mass ratio, agree to within better than 20 per cent. At higher redshift, EA-GLE increasingly underestimates the CSED at optical-NIR wavelengths with the FIR/submm emissivity underestimated by more than a factor of 5 by redshift z = 1. We believe that these differences are due to a combination of incompleteness of the EAGLE-SKIRT database, the small simulation volume and the consequent lack of luminous galaxies, and our lack of knowledge on the evolution of the characteristics of the interstellar dust in galaxies. The impressive agreement between the simulated and observed CSED at lower z confirms that the combination of EAGLE and SKIRT dust processing yields a fairly realistic representation of the local Universe.