Dust and PAHs in late-stage galaxy evolution: Imprints of TP-AGB dust injection, grain growth and AGN…

Abstract

A major unknown in late-stage galaxy evolution is what regulates the cold interstellar medium (ISM) after quenching, a question central to interpreting molecular gas, dust, and stellar content in quiescent galaxies (QGs) now probed by ALMA and JWST to z∼7. We present the first semi-analytic model that follows the coupled post-quenching evolution of dust, cold gas, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), using flexible star-formation histories and a framework tracking small and large carbonaceous and silicate grains. At z∼1, we find that QGs of similar mass (M_⋆∼8×10¹⁰ M_⊙), stellar-population age (∼2 Gyr), and cold gas fractions (f_gas∼1-10%), span $2−3$ dex in M_dust/M_⋆ and M_dust/M_gas, ranging from star-forming-like ratios to highly depleted dust states. The diversity arises from delayed dust injection by thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars and ISM grain growth, which sustain dust enrichment for up to ∼2.5 Gyr after quenching. Without these channels, the pre-quenching M_dust falls below 10% of its initial value within ≲0.5-$1$ Gyr, and twice as fast when AGN feedback is active. The imprint of post-quenching dust processing persists in substantial reservoirs of small carbonaceous grains, with PAH fractions of ∼2-3%, even if the cold-dust budget falls below typical ALMA continuum detection limits (M_dust/M_⋆≲10⁻⁴). Such signatures may remain detectable with JWST/MIRI at μJy depths, probing chemically enriched dust phases in otherwise ALMA-faint galaxies. Altogether, dust and PAHs provide independent probes of distinct stages of ISM evolution in QGs, rather than simply tracing the residual cold ISM of the preceding star-forming phase.

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BibTeX

@misc{donevski2026dust,
  title = {{Dust and PAHs in late-stage galaxy evolution: Imprints of TP-AGB dust injection, grain growth and AGN feedback in high-z quiescent galaxies with JWST and ALMA}},
  author = {D. Donevski and A. Nanni and K. E. Whitaker and A. W. S. Man and A. Faisst and A. Lapi and I. García-Bernete and M. Romano and T. Petrushevska and G. Gururajan and G. Lorenzon and D. Narayanan},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.27571},
  eprint = {2608.27571},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27571},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Dust and PAHs in late-stage galaxy evolution: Imprints of TP-AGB dust injection, grain growth and AGN feedback in high-z quiescent galaxies with JWST and ALMA
AU  - D. Donevski
AU  - A. Nanni
AU  - K. E. Whitaker
AU  - A. W. S. Man
AU  - A. Faisst
AU  - A. Lapi
AU  - I. García-Bernete
AU  - M. Romano
AU  - T. Petrushevska
AU  - G. Gururajan
AU  - G. Lorenzon
AU  - D. Narayanan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/01
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.27571
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27571
AB  - A major unknown in late-stage galaxy evolution is what regulates the cold interstellar medium (ISM) after quenching, a question central to interpreting molecular gas, dust, and stellar content in quiescent galaxies (QGs) now probed by ALMA and JWST to z∼7. We present the first semi-analytic model that follows the coupled post-quenching evolution of dust, cold gas, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), using flexible star-formation histories and a framework tracking small and large carbonaceous and silicate grains. At z∼1, we find that QGs of similar mass (M_⋆∼8×10^10 M_⊙), stellar-population age (∼2 Gyr), and cold gas fractions (f_gas∼1-10%), span $2−3$ dex in M_dust/M_⋆ and M_dust/M_gas, ranging from star-forming-like ratios to highly depleted dust states. The diversity arises from delayed dust injection by thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars and ISM grain growth, which sustain dust enrichment for up to ∼2.5 Gyr after quenching. Without these channels, the pre-quenching M_dust falls below 10% of its initial value within ≲0.5-$1$ Gyr, and twice as fast when AGN feedback is active. The imprint of post-quenching dust processing persists in substantial reservoirs of small carbonaceous grains, with PAH fractions of ∼2-3%, even if the cold-dust budget falls below typical ALMA continuum detection limits (M_dust/M_⋆≲10^−4). Such signatures may remain detectable with JWST/MIRI at μJy depths, probing chemically enriched dust phases in otherwise ALMA-faint galaxies. Altogether, dust and PAHs provide independent probes of distinct stages of ISM evolution in QGs, rather than simply tracing the residual cold ISM of the preceding star-forming phase.
ER  -

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