The dust budget crisis in high-redshift submillimetre galaxies

Abstract

We apply a chemical evolution model to investigate the sources and evolution of dust in a sample of 26 high-redshift (z > 1) submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) from the literature, with complete photometry from ultraviolet to the submillimetre. We show that dust produced only by low-intermediate mass stars falls a factor 240 short of the observed dust masses of SMGs, the well-known 'dust-budget crisis'. Adding an extra source of dust from supernovae can account for the dust mass in 19 per cent of the SMG sample. Even after accounting for dust produced by supernovae the remaining deficit in the dust mass budget provides support for higher supernova yields, substantial grain growth in the interstellar medium or a top-heavy IMF. Including efficient destruction of dust by supernova shocks increases the tension between our model and observed SMG dust masses. The models which best reproduce the physical properties of SMGs have a rapid build-up of dust from both stellar and interstellar sources and minimal dust destruction. Alternatively, invoking a top-heavy IMF or significant changes in the dust grain properties can solve the dust budget crisis only if dust is produced by both low mass stars and supernovae and is not efficiently destroyed by supernova shocks.

Star Formation for Predictive Primordial Galaxy Formation

“…In the nearby Universe, supernovae seem be producing large quantities of dust, specifically in the form of large dust grains that resist destruction in shocks [233,234]. Also, there is growing indirect evidence for an efficient production of dust by supernovae in high-redshift submillimeter galaxies [235,236]. Some supernova-produced dust, especially in the form of small grains, is destroyed in the reverse shock [237] and in other interstellar shocks, but the grains that clearly survive seem to be able to re-grow in the gas phase.…”