What Drives Galaxy-Galaxy Differences In The Selective Attenuation Curve? New Perspectives from DESI DR1
Abstract
Leveraging a sample of 3457 galaxies drawn from DESI DR1 and cross-matched with archival GALEX UV photometry, we construct new dust attenuation curves and measure how the shape of these curves vary as a function of galaxy properties. Our curves are built by comparing the median flux densities of galaxies that have been divided into bins of nebular opacity, measured via the Balmer optical depth (i.e. the Hα/Hβ ratio). When no further cuts on galaxy properties are applied, we find an attenuation curve very similar to previous work at low redshifts. We then test how the attenuation curves vary as a function of galaxy properties; stellar mass, specific star formation rate, metallicity, and ionization parameter. We find that the curve steepens significantly at higher specific star formation rate. In our data, there is not a clear link between the ionization parameter, mass, or metallicity and the attenuation curve slope.
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BibTeX
@misc{mizener2026what,
title = {{What Drives Galaxy-Galaxy Differences In The Selective Attenuation Curve? New Perspectives from DESI DR1}},
author = {Andrew Mizener and Daniela Calzetti and Ranga-Ram Chary and John Moustakas},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.21010},
eprint = {2609.21010},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21010},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - What Drives Galaxy-Galaxy Differences In The Selective Attenuation Curve? New Perspectives from DESI DR1
AU - Andrew Mizener
AU - Daniela Calzetti
AU - Ranga-Ram Chary
AU - John Moustakas
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.21010
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21010
AB - Leveraging a sample of 3457 galaxies drawn from DESI DR1 and cross-matched with archival GALEX UV photometry, we construct new dust attenuation curves and measure how the shape of these curves vary as a function of galaxy properties. Our curves are built by comparing the median flux densities of galaxies that have been divided into bins of nebular opacity, measured via the Balmer optical depth (i.e. the Hα/Hβ ratio). When no further cuts on galaxy properties are applied, we find an attenuation curve very similar to previous work at low redshifts. We then test how the attenuation curves vary as a function of galaxy properties; stellar mass, specific star formation rate, metallicity, and ionization parameter. We find that the curve steepens significantly at higher specific star formation rate. In our data, there is not a clear link between the ionization parameter, mass, or metallicity and the attenuation curve slope.
ER -