{
  "abstract": "Dust is a fundamental component of the interstellar medium and provides a key tracer of the baryon cycle that regulates galaxy evolution. The dust-to-gas ratio links metals in the gas phase to those locked into dust grains, making it a sensitive diagnostic of dust production, grain growth, and destruction. We present measurements of the dust-to-molecular-gas ratio ($\\rm DGR_{mol}$), for typical star-forming galaxies ($\\log M_\\star \\approx 10$) at sub-solar metallicites, at $z\\simeq2-2.5$ from the ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) survey. By combining ALMA CO and dust-continuum observations with robust gas-phase metallicity measurements, ACE extends direct dust and molecular-gas measurements to lower stellar masses and lower metallicities than previously available at this epoch, reaching down to $0.4\\,Z_{\\odot}$. This enables the first constraints on the $\\rm DGR_{mol}$--metallicity relation for typical unlensed galaxies at cosmic noon. We find that $\\rm DGR_{mol}$ increases with metallicity, with a log-space slope of $1.2 \\pm 0.7$, indicating that metal-poor galaxies have systematically lower $\\rm DGR_{mol}$ than their more metal-rich counterparts. For the detected ACE galaxies, we measure a mean value of $\\log_{10}(M_{\\rm dust}/M_{\\rm mol})=-2.37\\pm0.05$ for a mean metallicity of 12+$\\log (\\rm O/H) = 8.45 \\pm 0.02$. We find agreement with $\\rm DGR_{mol}$ in the local Universe at fixed metallicities, indicating that the same dust-growth physics, likely grain growth in the ISM, dominates at metallicities of $8.3 \\leq 12+\\log(\\rm O/H) \\leq 8.7$ at cosmic noon. These measurements provide novel empirical constraints for models of dust enrichment and galaxy evolution during the peak epoch of cosmic star formation. Additionally, ACE provides a sub-solar metallicity reference for the calibration of dust continuum as tracer of molecular gas, essential for studying metal-poor, high-redshift systems.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.20926",
  "author_total": 14,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "N. N. Geesink"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. Popping"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. A. Boogaard"
    },
    {
      "name": "I. Langan"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Pope"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Popescu"
    },
    {
      "name": "I. Shivaei"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Solimano"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Kaasinen"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Mobasher"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Narayanan"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Parente"
    },
    {
      "name": "N. Reddy"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. L. Sanders"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/atxfjnzbpjpnc.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.20926",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "atxfjnzbpjpnc",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20926",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213889108",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.20926",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-17",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/atxfjnzbpjpnc.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:23:03Z",
      "native_id": "2609.20926",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20926"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) survey: dust-to-gas ratios in sub-solar metallicity galaxies at cosmic noon",
  "title_text": "ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) survey: dust-to-gas ratios in sub-solar metallicity galaxies at cosmic noon",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:23:03Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/atxfjnzbpjpnc",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}