Dust growth in the early Universe: insight from the NewCluster spin-off simulation
Abstract
We investigate dust evolution in galaxies at z∼5 using a spin-off run of the \NC\ cosmological zoom-in simulation with a live two-species, two-size dust model. We find that dust evolution follows three metallicity-dependent phases. At log(Z/Z⊙)<−1, dust is dominated by stellar ejecta and produces a shallow, featureless UV extinction curve whose normalized wavelength dependence is similar to that of the Calzetti attenuation law (Phase I). At −1≤ log(Z/Z⊙)<−0.5, efficient silicate accretion drives rapid dust growth, producing silicate-rich dust and SMC-like extinction curves (Phase II). At log(Z/Z⊙)≥−0.5, carbonaceous grain growth also becomes efficient, yielding a more balanced grain mixture and Milky-Way-like extinction curves (Phase III). In addition, local dust-to-metal ratios are strongly suppressed in regions affected by recent clustered supernova feedback, further complicating the interpretation of high-z observations. Despite some successes, our galaxies lie below current observationally inferred dust masses and dust-to-metal ratios for high-redshift galaxies. The resulting depletion patterns suggest that the fixed Fe-bearing olivine composition assumed in our current dust model may be too restrictive for chemically young galaxies, and that metallicity-dependent grain compositions may be required to explain the dust content of the early Universe.
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BibTeX
@misc{jang2026dust,
title = {{Dust growth in the early Universe: insight from the NewCluster spin-off simulation}},
author = {J. K. Jang and Yohan Dubois and Francisco Rodriguez Montero and San Han and Jinsu Rhee and Diana Ismail and Gyeong-Hwan Byun and Changyeon Yu and Seyoung Jeon and Sukyoung K. Yi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.39683},
eprint = {2610.39683},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39683},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Dust growth in the early Universe: insight from the NewCluster spin-off simulation
AU - J. K. Jang
AU - Yohan Dubois
AU - Francisco Rodriguez Montero
AU - San Han
AU - Jinsu Rhee
AU - Diana Ismail
AU - Gyeong-Hwan Byun
AU - Changyeon Yu
AU - Seyoung Jeon
AU - Sukyoung K. Yi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.39683
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39683
AB - We investigate dust evolution in galaxies at z∼5 using a spin-off run of the \NC\ cosmological zoom-in simulation with a live two-species, two-size dust model. We find that dust evolution follows three metallicity-dependent phases. At log(Z/Z_⊙)<−1, dust is dominated by stellar ejecta and produces a shallow, featureless UV extinction curve whose normalized wavelength dependence is similar to that of the Calzetti attenuation law (Phase I). At −1≤ log(Z/Z_⊙)<−0.5, efficient silicate accretion drives rapid dust growth, producing silicate-rich dust and SMC-like extinction curves (Phase II). At log(Z/Z_⊙)≥−0.5, carbonaceous grain growth also becomes efficient, yielding a more balanced grain mixture and Milky-Way-like extinction curves (Phase III). In addition, local dust-to-metal ratios are strongly suppressed in regions affected by recent clustered supernova feedback, further complicating the interpretation of high-z observations. Despite some successes, our galaxies lie below current observationally inferred dust masses and dust-to-metal ratios for high-redshift galaxies. The resulting depletion patterns suggest that the fixed Fe-bearing olivine composition assumed in our current dust model may be too restrictive for chemically young galaxies, and that metallicity-dependent grain compositions may be required to explain the dust content of the early Universe.
ER -